The Indian government has stated that auction will remain the primary mechanism for allocating spectrum for telecom services, excluding certain defined cases such as satellite communications, sovereign functions, or the armed forces, which may be granted through administrative allocation. This clarification comes amid ongoing legal challenges and ahead of the introduction of the Telecommunications Act 2023. The government has approached the Supreme Court seeking clarification on whether administrative allocation is permissible under specific circumstances, such as sovereign functional requirements, public interest, or technical and economic factors that may hinder auctions. The government emphasizes that administrative allocation will be limited to specific cases as outlined in the Act, including spectrum for police walkie-talkies, weather forecasting radar, and communication for the armed forces and space applications. The clarification follows a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that established competitive auctions as the route for distributing public natural resources. The government’s plea for clarification comes as several key players, including Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, Reliance’s Jio Satellite Communications, Elon Musk’s Starlink, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, plan to launch satellite services in India. While some industry players support the non-auction route, others, including Reliance, advocate for direct allocation.
Spectrum Allocation for Telecom Services to Continue via Auctions
