Satcom firms flag omission of GMPCS in DoT's draft spectrum allocation rules

New Delhi: Satellite communication companies have flagged the absence of any reference to global mobile personal communications service (GMPCS) providers in the draft rules for administrative allocation of spectrum, released by the department of telecommunications (DoT).

The department on June 17 issued draft rules for administrative spectrum allocation, or allotment of airwaves without auctions, for specific purposes under Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act.

In a letter to DoT secretary Amit Agarwal, the Broadband India Forum (BIF) said the draft rules cover various satellite-based services such as teleports, television channels, direct-to-home, headend-in-the-sky, digital satellite news gathering, VSAT (captive and commercial), national long distance, international long distance and mobile satellite service in specified bands. These services have been mandated for administrative allocation of spectrum under the Act.

An Omission

However, GMPCS, a segment that was also explicitly mentioned in the Telecommunications Act for administrative spectrum assignment, has been left out in the draft regulations, creating uncertainty for the players, it wrote. ET has seen a copy of the letter dated June 23.

Members of the forum, which terms itself as a neutral non-partisan policy forum and think tank, include satcom companies like Amazon, OneWeb, Hughes, Nelco, Viasat and Dhruva Space. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Google, Meta, Netflix and Qualcomm are also its members.

The industry body said the draft regulations have been framed to operationalise the provisions of the Telecom Act and excluding GMPCS from the list of services goes against the parent statute. "It is a settled principle in law and legislation that subordinate legislation is intended to give effect to the provisions and objectives of the parent statute. Rules framed under an Act are to operate within the framework established by the legislature and are expected to faithfully implement the categories and policy choices expressly incorporated in the statute," the BIF said.

Consultation on Draft Rules

Pointing out that there is no explicit framework in the draft rules on GMPCS, the forum urged the telecom department to maintain consistency between the Act and the operational framework.

As part of the draft rules, DoT has retained the pricing structure of administrative assignment of spectrum to geo-stationery players such as Nelco and Hughes Telecom, fixed at 3-4% of adjusted gross revenue.

However, rules do not cover the non-geostationary satellite segment that includes players such as Starlink, OneWeb and Amazon Kuiper. Consultation on the draft rules is open for 30 days.