SCENT OF A MAN

Why domestic telcos smell trouble if Elon Musk's Starlink gets satellite spectrum at administrative prices

- SURAJEET DAS GUPTA

In June, Elon Musk introduced a portable dish kit, Starlink Mini, in Kenya and offered the service at $10 a month for home or on-the-go, bringing down the price of entry-level satellite broadband in the country and giving a boost to subscriber numbers. This also brought Musk's company Starlink into a headlong battle with Kenya's largest telecom and internet provider, Safaricom, which has urged the regulator to mandate foreign players such as Starlink to partner with local players and not give them independent licences.

Kenya is not alone. Incumbent telecom and internet operators in other African countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe, and in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia are building moats against Starlink's onslaught.

Joining the chorus are Indian telcos, which have buried their mutual differences to put up a common front. Last week, in a surprise move at the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC), Bharti Airtel Chairman and OneWeb promoter Sunil Mittal said satellite players should need a licence, as telcos do, to service "elite retail customers" in urban areas and buy spectrum through auction.

Mittal was for the first time speaking in the same voice as Mukesh Ambani, whose Reliance Jio has been pushing for auctions.

For two years, Mittal and Ambani were in separate camps, with Mittal asking for administrative allocation of spectrum and Ambani opposing it.

Mittal however has stuck to his stance that for remote and rural areas or maritime and aviation, spectrum should be administratively allocated.

The government, for its part, swung into action.

Administrative only

Communication Minister Jyotindra Scindia confirmed at a press conference that satellite spectrum will only be given administratively as it is done across the world, though he did not specify the geographies nor how.