Auction-free satcom spectrum: Telcos & tech players to compete on equal footing

Even as the Telelcommunications Bill, 2023 has paved way for administrative allocation of satellite spectrum, Reliance Jio which was batting for auction of the airwave will not be at any disadvantage. It is just that now the company will now have to strongly compete with big tech players like Starlink, Amazon etc. Allocation of spectrum through auctions may have limited the competition only to the telecom players as it is unlikely that tech majors would have participated in it.

Unlike telecom, where owing to different nature of services each service provider has to have its own exclusive spectrum, satellite spectrum is a shared resource and no one player will have super holding on the basis of bidding strategy.