Musk, Tata, Mittal and Amazon on one side, Ambani on the other, know what is the whole matter.

Elon Musk wants his Starlink to transmit wireless internet to India from satellites orbiting the Earth. However, due to the licensing regime that his group is supporting, he may have to compete with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance. After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York last week, Musk said on June 21 that he wanted to launch Starlink in India. With the help of this service, internet can be reached in remote villages that lack infrastructure. Starlink wants India to license only the service and not insist on auctioning the spectrum or airwaves containing the signal. Musk’s stance matches that of Tata, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Amazon.

Spectrum should be auctioned

Ambani’s Reliance, on the other hand, says that spectrum should be auctioned for providing voice and data services to foreign satellite service providers. Reliance says this is necessary to provide a level-playing field to traditional telecom companies, which offer similar services using airwaves bought in government auctions. Brokerage CLSA said in a note, “The spectrum decision is important for India’s space-based communication service (SS).

US $ 77 billion auction

The government has auctioned mobile spectrum worth US$ 77 billion since 2010 and many companies are keen on SS. CLSA said several companies including Starlink are keen on Indian SS. The commentary said Amazon, Tata, Bharti Airtel-backed OneWeb and Larsen & Toubro are against the auction, while Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea support the Bharat SS auction.