Win for Musk as Scindia says no to spectrum auction pitch from Ambani and Mittal

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.

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The satellite broadband spectrum will, however, not be given free and sector regulator Trai will fix a price for the resource, he told PTI in a text and video interview.

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.