Airtel's Sunil Mittal joins Ambani to pitch for satellite companies buying spectrum

Telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal on Tuesday joined his rival Mukesh Ambani -led Jio, to make a strong case for satellite companies paying license fees as well as buying airwaves for their telecom services just like legacy companies do, in a bid to create a level playing field. Speaking at the India Mobile Conference, Mittal, who heads India's second largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel, said existing telecom companies will take satellite services into the remotest parts.

"And those satellite companies who have ambitions to come into urban areas, serving retail customers, just need to pay the telecom licenses like everyone else. They are bound to the same conditions. They need to buy the spectrum as the telecom companies do, and need to pay the license as the telecom companies do, and also secure the networks of the telecom companies," he said in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

Airtel is planning to launch its satellite internet services through Eutelsat OneWeb in India. In June, Mittal said that OneWeb is ready to roll out its satellite-based broadband services but is awaiting a nod from the government. In a statement, Airtel said it has already set up two ground stations, one in Gujarat and the other one in Tamil Nadu, “to secure all communications arising out of India on the satcom network as it awaits the green light to commercially provide such services.”

Similarly, Jio has also developed its satellite internet technology, but waiting for the government to begin the spectrum auction to promote competition in the market. Both companies have also hinted that Elon Musk's Starlink – which was ready to roll out its services in India by the end of 2024 before the government intervened – is a “formidable” competition in the space. Starlink is operational in several countries already.

Last week, Ambani's Reliance Jio had written to Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia opposing the telecom regulator TRAI's recommendation of satellite broadband being allocated and not auctioned. Elon Musk's Starlink and global peers like Amazon 's Project Kuiper back an administrative allocation.

Written with inputs from PTI