Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X (formerly Twitter), has found himself in a contentious battle over spectrum allocation for satellite broadband in India.
The Indian government announced on Tuesday that it will allocate spectrum for satellite broadband administratively, rather than through an auction, a decision that came just hours after Musk criticized the auction route proposed by rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani as "unprecedented."
This dispute over the methodology of awarding spectrum for satellite services in India, a market expected to grow by 36% annually to reach $1.9 billion by 2030, has been a point of contention since last year. Musk's Starlink advocates for administrative allotment of licenses, citing a global trend, while India's Reliance, led by Mukesh Ambani, argues that an auction is necessary to ensure a level playing field and adheres to Indian law, which currently lacks provisions for individual satellite broadband services.
Telecoms Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia confirmed during a New Delhi event that the spectrum will be allocated administratively in accordance with Indian laws, with pricing determined by the telecom watchdog. Scindia noted, "If you do decide to auction it, then you will be doing something which is different from the rest of the world."
Musk expressed his appreciation for the government's decision on social media platform X, stating, "We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink."
On Sunday, Reuters reported that Reliance had challenged the Indian telecom regulator's consultation process, which indicated that home satellite broadband spectrum should be allocated rather than auctioned, calling for the process to start anew. Following the Reuters story, Musk wrote on X that any decision to auction would be "unprecedented." He referenced the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a U.N. agency for digital technology, which has long designated this spectrum as shared for satellites.
India, a member of the ITU and signatory to its treaty, advocates for the rational, efficient, and economical allocation of satellite spectrum, recognizing it as a limited natural resource.
Sunil Mittal, co-chair of global satellite group Eutelsat and chair of India's telecom operator Bharti Airtel, voiced support for the auction route on Tuesday. Mittal argued that satellite companies aiming to serve urban areas and elite retail customers should obtain telecom licenses and buy spectrum like other telecom companies.
Earlier in 2023, both Eutelsat unit OneWeb and Airtel expressed concerns about auctioning the spectrum in their submissions to the Indian government. Musk's Starlink and other global peers like Amazon's Project Kuiper support administrative allocation, arguing that spectrum is a natural resource that should be shared among companies.
