SATELLITE BROADBAND: In a boost to Musk, Scindia declines auction of spectrum

However, the satellite broadband spectrum will not be given for free sector regulator Trai will fix a price for the resource, he said

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NEW DELHI: In a boost to Elon Musk's Starlink, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said the spectrum for satellite broadband will be allocated and not auctioned as sought by Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal.

However, the satellite broadband spectrum will not be given for free and the sector regulator Trai will fix a price for the resource, he said.

"Every country has to follow the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is the organisation that lays out the policy for spectrum in space or satellites, and the ITU has been very clear in terms of the spectrum being given out on an assignment basis. In addition, if you look across the world today, I cannot think of a single country that auctions spectrum for satellite," Scindia said.

India is a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency for digital technology. Musk's Starlink and global peers like Amazon's Project Kuiper back an administrative allocation.