Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Credit: PTI Photo
Though US tech billionaire Elon Musk accepted union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia's decision that satellite spectrum would be allotted administratively, many are voicing their opinion in support for auctioning it.
Former Government of India secretary, and retired bureaucrat, EAS Sarma, on Thursday wrote to Department of Telecommunications (DOT), secretary, Dr Neeraj Mittal, and said that satellite spectrum will play a significant and crucial role in providing support to our defence services, and ISRO.
He noted China had made enormous strides in recent times in the application of satellite spectrum usage in defence and space applications.
DOT should accord the highest priority to the future needs of India's defence services in order to safeguard the national interest, he said.
He added that considering that spectrum, whether it is through satellites or otherwise, is a valuable natural resource, the allocation of which should be made so as to subserve the overall public interest to the maximum extent.
"If it is administratively allocated, whatever the norms that apply, the allocation process would be non-transparent and price discovery would not be amenable to verification. If the price is too high, the cost burden would fall on consumers, and if it is too low, private allottees would profit at the cost of consumers, as happened recently in the case of 5G services."
“It is ironic that DOT should get so easily swayed by pressure from one global player, Elon Musk, not by the needs of Defence, ISRO, or millions of consumers who are woefully at the receiving end of corporate telecom operators, on whose tariffs, regulatory control is non-existent.
"Evidently, the Telecom Minister has not been adequately briefed by his officers of Supreme Court's observations on the allocation of satellite spectrum, nor has he been apprised of the way telecom consumers are being fleeced by private operators in India,” Sarma said in the letter.
He added that allocation of satellite spectrum would be prima facie illegal, if it is done in any way other than the one stipulated by the apex court.
“On the other hand, if satellite spectrum is reserved entirely for strategic uses as indicated above, it would maximise benefits to the society. I request DOT to be cautious in proceeding further on allocation of satellite spectrum to private players, especially through non-transparent procedures and preferably earmark it exclusively for strategic uses,” he added.
He observed that TRAI had circulated a Consultation Paper on April 6, 2023 on issues relating to allocation of satellite spectrum, specifically making a reference to the observations of the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case in 2012.
“In our view, a duly publicised auction conducted fairly and impartially is perhaps the best method for discharging this burden and the methods like first-come-first-served when used for alienation of natural resources/ public property are likely to be misused by unscrupulous people who are only interested in garnering maximum financial benefit and have no respect for the constitutional ethos and values.
"In other words, while transferring or alienating the natural resources, the State is duty bound to adopt the method of auction by giving wide publicity so that all eligible persons can participate in the process,” Sarma mentioned Supreme Court's observations in his letter as quoted in TRAI's consultation paper.