Satcom: Jio's legal opinion questions Trai transparency

Amid a consultation by the telecom regulator on satellite spectrum allocation, Reliance Jio has submitted an additional legal opinion from a former Supreme Court judge, whose view is that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) should have sought comments from stakeholders regarding mode of assignment of satcom bandwidth and ensuring level-playing field and that by not doing so, the regulator has violated its transparency obligations.

Justice L Nageshwara Rao further said the list under Schedule I of the Telecommunications Act, which has entries wherein spectrum must be given administratively, was not frozen and could be amended from time to time. A copy of legal opinion was seen by ET.

The judge took note of the fact that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)'s reference specifically asked the Trai to provide recommendations on satcom services while accounting for level playing field with terrestrial access services. "While the consultation paper in paragraph 4.20 under chapter IV makes a reference to this stipulation and states that it is essential to examine whether such a level playing field exists, no questions have been posed to stakeholders so as to enable adequate consultation on the issue," Rao said.


The country's largest telecom operator had sought the opinion of the judge on queries relating to the Telecommunications Act and the Trai Act.

He said that in the consultation paper, Trai had completely sidestepped the issue of level playing field, thereby depriving the stakeholders an opportunity to provide their comments.