Reliance Jio has sought telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s intervention to get regulator TRAI to challenge a revised session paper on a proposed spectrum allocation rule to “ensure a level-playing field” between terrestrial and satellite tv for pc gamers.
In its letter to Scindia, Jio referred to the Supreme Court’s judgement within the 2G case and indicated that TRAI’s failure to incorporate questions on a level-playing subject might lead to authorized tussles.
The letter got here after TRAI rejected Jio’s request for incorporating questions across the level-playing subject between terrestrial community gamers that present cell phone providers utilizing towers put in on the bottom and people searching for to provide satellite-based communication providers.
On 27 September this yr, TRAI floated a session course of to discover methodology and value for assigning spectrum to satellite tv for pc corporations to present calling, messaging, broadband, and different providers within the nation.
Jio, in a letter dated 10 October, talked about that satellite tv for pc communication corporations comparable to Elon Musk’s Starlink, Amazon’s Kupier, Bharti Group-backed OneWeb Eutelsat, and SES-Jio three way partnership have expressed curiosity to present their providers in India, which is able to immediately compete with land-based (terrestrial) cell networks. Therefore, a good and clear auction system for satellite tv for pc providers is important to guarantee stage competitors.
“While the DoT correctly recognised the need for a level-playing field in its reference to TRAI, the consultation paper issued by TRAI appears to overlook this critical issue. It seems TRAI has pre-emptively closed the matter without soliciting the views of stakeholders,” Jio stated.
The telecom operator additional stated that the session paper fails to ask pertinent questions across the level-playing subject, which is able to deprive stakeholders of the chance to voice their opinions.
“Such a consultation exercise could result in recommendations that disregard this vital issue of level-playing field. Although we raised this issue with TRAI and asked that the consultation paper be revised to address the level-playing field issues between satellite and terrestrial networks, our request was not considered favourably,” Jio stated.
Under the Telecommunications Act 2023, the government determined to allocate spectrum with out auction via an administrative course of for a choose set of satellite tv for pc providers.
Jio stated that neither the Department of Telecom (DoT) nor TRAI carried out any complete research on technological evolution, market demand and provide, financial feasibility of auctions of spectrum on the time of incorporating and permitting administrative allocation of spectrum for satellite tv for pc telephone providers. The telco additionally stated that consistent with clear legislative intent and DoT’s recognition of the necessity for a level-playing subject between satellite tv for pc and terrestrial providers, TRAI should totally assess technological evolution, market demand and provide, technical and financial feasibility of auctions for satellite tv for pc providers.
“Failure to do so may expose TRAI consultation exercise and consequent recommendations liable to legal scrutiny. The Supreme Court and its various judgments emphasised the importance of a transparent and fair mechanism for assignment of spectrum and junked the ‘first-cum-first-served’ method of assignment,” Jio stated.
