Centre to allot satellite internet airwaves without auction in win for Elon Musk

Bengaluru: The Centre has proposed a licensing approach to assigning spectrum for satellite internet services and exempt companies from having to bid for it, a win for Elon Musk’s venture Starlink which has lobbied hard against any auctions.

The proposal was included in a new draft bill for the telecommunications sector, which seeks to replace the 138-year old Indian Telegraph Act that currently governs the sector. The bill was tabled for approval in Parliament on Monday.

While Starlink and its global peers like Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and the British government-backed OneWeb would rejoice in the move, it is a setback to Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s wealthiest, who runs Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio.