Satellite spectrum not to be allocated on first come first serve basis: Jyotiraditya Scinida

Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scinida on Friday asserted that satellite spectrum allocation will not be assigned on a first come first serve basis - the contentious way through which radiowaves were allotted for 2G services.

While speaking at the India Economic Conclave, the minister said that it is not possible to auction spectrum for satellite service due to the science associated with it and no country has auctioned the radio waves for the same.

There is no country in the world which auctions satellite spectrum because it's physically impossible to auction. Now you bring in the economic argument, how will you administratively allocate it? That pricing is not going to be on a first come first serve basis. None of this stuff. It's going to be decided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (of India. That authority will assign that price, and based on that, the spectrum will be assigned to everyone that procures a license," Scindia said.

He was replying to a question which cited the 2G case when the spectrum was assigned without auction.

Scindia said there is a scientific argument and then an economic argument linked to the spectrum allocation.

"How can you auction something that is shared? You can only auction something that is committed to a certain individual? So satellite phones, for example, you have to point your antenna, and that's when you get the signal, and it keeps shifting. Therefore, that spectrum is shared. Every single country across the world, because of its physics principles, satellite spectrum is always administratively assigned," the minister said.

Telecom operators have opposed government proposals to assign spectrum without auction and through administrative process to satellite players.

Talking about loss-making telecom PSU BSNL, the minister said the telecom firm has been posting operational profit since 2021 and revenues have increased by about 12 per cent ot Rs 21,000 crore while the expenditure has reduced by 2 per cent.

He said that the company has been little late in the launch of 4G service because of the choice it made to roll out a network based on indigenously developed technology.

"We have rolled out on this date close to 62,000 towers of Indian technology. India is the only fifth country in the world to have its own 4G hardware and its own 4G stack. Now, by the time I roll out 100,000 towers, which will be by May or June of 2025, I will also start switching some of my towers from 4G technology to 5G technology for BSNL," Scindia said.

He said that by June 2025, every nook and corner of the will have telecom connectivity.