TRAI rejects DoT`s suggestion of 5% spectrum fee from satcom players
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rejected Department of Telecom's (DoT) suggestion of increasing the annual spectrum fee charged from satcom (satellite communications) players to 5% from 4% and remove a Rs 500 fee per connection in urban areas. Along with 5% annual spectrum fee, the DoT also sought a provision of 1% discount if 5% customers of the company enrolled in a year are from tough terrains in border and remote hilly area. The TRAI’s response came following the Department of Telecom seeking some changes in the recommendation of the TRAI on satellite communications spectrum allocation methodology and charges for companies such as Elon Musk-led Starlink, Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio SES that are in fray to start their services in the country.
Responding to DoT, TRAI has reiterated its recommendations, however it said that the government may adopt any additional schemes to take advantage of FSS (fixed satellite services) for faster and economical expansion of broadband services in identified hard-to-connect areas, including but not limited to hills, border areas and islands, particularly addressing affordability of user terminals. It noted that if DoT's views are adopted to encourage satellite connections in border and tough terrains, then a lot of people in rural areas will be left behind in accessing satellite connectivity.
Moreover, TRAI didn’t concur with DoT's proposal to charge the spectrum at the rate of 5% of AGR with conditional discounts for providing connectivity to hard-to-connect areas such as border/ hills/ islands. It indicated that the Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO)-based FSS providers may focus more on urban areas than that of rural areas given the relatively higher purchasing power of subscribers in urban areas leading to high demand and consumption of data in these regions. This potentially undermine the goal of bridging the digital divide in rural and remote areas. To address this, it has suggested imposing a per subscriber charge of Rs 500 per annum in urban areas, while exempting rural and remote areas which may provide an incentive for operators to expand their services into rural and remote areas, and if required, this per subscriber charge may be reviewed in future.
