Trai seeks views on need for new license category for setting up satellite earth station gateway

Kolkata: The telecom regulator has asked industry stakeholders if a separate licence category is needed for setting up satellite earth station gateways, a key resource for offering fast broadband-from-space services in a market being eyed by the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Bharti-backed OneWeb, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also sought suggestions on the “operational scope,” and associated “financial obligations,” of such a permit, including licence fee, entry fee, bank guarantees and network operation & control centre (NOCC) charges.

Trai also wants suggestions on ways to assign spectrum for establishing such satellite gateways, and the mechanism for charging a satellite earth station permit-holder for such airwaves.