Trai extends comments submissions deadlines for satellite gateways consultation

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has extended the deadlines for stakeholder comments and counter-comments on its discussion paper on the licensing framework for establishing satellite gateways.

It has now sought comments and counter-comments by December 20 and January 3 respectively, following requests from stakeholders. The sector regulator had originally sought these submissions by December 13 and December 27.

Last month, the sector regulator had sought views from industry if a separate licence category is required for setting up satellite earth station gateways, a key resource for offering fast broadband-from-space services in a market being eyed by the likes of Elon Musk’s Starlink, Bharti-backed OneWeb, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.


Trai has also sought suggestions on the “operational scope,” and associated “financial obligations,” of such a permit, including licence fee, entry fee, bank guarantees and network operation & control centre (NOCC) charges.

Trai has also sought views on ways to assign spectrum for establishing such satellite gateways, and the mechanism for charging a satellite earth station permit-holder for such airwaves.

An earth station gateway would, typically, control an LEO satellite constellation and also facilitate bandwidth connectivity between a satellite and the end-user of broadband-from-space services in India.

Trai’s paper is seen as a decisive step towards framing new licencing rules on setting up of in-country satellite gateways by global non-geostationary satellite system operators (NGSOs), or low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite service providers such as OneWeb, SpaceX and Amazon and Canada’s Telesat who are keen to launch fast satellite broadband services in India.

India is seen as a key emerging satellite broadband market with an over $1 billion annual revenue opportunity. This is since almost 75% of rural India still does not have access to broadband as many locations are still without cellular or fibre connectivity. The LEO satellite systems are being seen as a viable alternative.