Satcom wars shift to price; Elon Musk’s Starlink, Bezos’ Kuiper want cheap waves

Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon Kuiper are pushing for lower satellite spectrum prices in India. Jeff Bezos-owned Kuiper is cautioning that pricey airwaves will force global satellite internet operators to target consumers in the South Asian nation’s urban areas, instead of the original aim of giving connectivity to remote regions.

Any shift in strategy to focus on urban centres would pit these global firms against Indian telecom firms such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

Starlink on Friday reiterated its stance that spectrum for satellite services was a shared resource and cannot be auctioned, countering the demand from India’s largest telco Reliance Jio, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.


Sunil Mittal-led Airtel is also proposing auction of spectrum if satellite communication (satcom) services are delivered to any part of the country, except the remote regions.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2024, Starlink and Amazon Kuiper urged Indian authorities for a predictable policy environment and minimal government rules.

Calls for light-touch regulation
They said this will enable them to offer broadband-from-space services in remote regions where deploying terrestrial communications infrastructure is not feasible.

Jio, in a joint venture with Luxembourg’s SES, and Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb will be vying with the likes of Starlink and Amazon Kuiper for a share of India’s nascent satcom market that holds immense growth potential.

OneWeb and Jio-SES combine are currently the only two entities to get all approvals and permits for offering satcom services in the country. Applications of others including Starlink and Amazon-Kuiper are pending with Indian authorities.

National space sector regulator IN-SPACe estimates India’s space economy to touch $44 billion by 2033, boosting its global share to about 8% from about 2% currently.

“Predictable policy is very important. Without a predictable policy, these multi-billion dollar investments cannot be made. There should be a light-touch regulation,” said K Krishna, business head, Asia Pacific at Amazon Kuiper, at a session on satellite spectrum regulations.

He said satellite services should not be viewed as a ‘golden goose’.

“Be light on the regulatory fees and spectrum fees, because we are trying to reach the last customer (in remote regions) in providing that universal access. So, if you price (lower), you are incentivising us to go after the unconnected people. (But) if you price the spectrum high… we are going to go after the urban markets…,” said Krishna. “So, if your goal is to reach that customer, we share that goal too. But if you burden us with a lot of fees, we are not going to be able to (deliver services) cost effectively”.

The comments track communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia clarifying that spectrum for satellite services will be allocated administratively, but at a cost which would be decided by the telecom regulator.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is currently running a consultation process on spectrum pricing and other modalities. Jio has opposed the paper for not considering the aspect of a level playing field with telcos.

Jio’s contention is that satcom airwaves should be auctioned as in future, such companies will be able to offer similar services as telcos do. Hence, satcom firms should also be mandated to buy bandwidth in auctions like operators do.

David Goldman, head of satellite policy at SpaceX—the developer of Starlink—said satcom is a shared resource and hence, should not be auctioned.

“Satellite spectrum is shared. So, the approach is fundamentally different from what you get when you have terrestrial licences that are exclusive use. I don’t think anyone has really come up with a model for how you could auction it (satellite spectrum), so you need to come up with a different model,” said Goldman.

He added that Starlink operates in more than 100 countries and has seen varied approaches to the issue of spectrum.

“Mostly, because it’s (spectrum is) shared, the most important thing is to encourage operators to coordinate their use. If operators are in the shared spectrum and they don’t have the proper incentives to coordinate, that’s when it doesn’t work. That’s when the licences don’t work. That’s when the whole approach falls apart, because that’s when you have operators who are encouraged to try to block competition and try to make the spectrum not usable,” said Goldman.

He added that Starlink typically partners with local telcos holding licenced spectrum to provider satcom services in a country.

“Once we have a mobile partner, they will tell us which spectrum we can use. We then essentially plug into their network and become effectively a backhaul system for their network using their licensed spectrum,” said Goldman.

Starlink currently has about 7,000 satellites in low-earth orbit (LEO), covering over 100 countries. It has about four million customers presently. In contrast, Amazon is investing $10 billion to launch Kuiper, its LEO constellation, and plans to have 3,232 satellites in orbit by 2029.

Goldman said Starlink is deploying a separate constellation for direct-to-cell connectivity. So far, it has launched 200 satellites, he added.

At the same session, Trai chairman AK Lahoti said deliberations are needed to ensure the success of the integration of terrestrial networks with non-terrestrial networks.