The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has floated a consultation paper on “Licensing Framework for Establishing Satellite Earth Station Gateway.”
This move is in response to the limitations of the current licencing framework of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) with respect to satellite services. There are no provisions regarding usage of gateway by service provider established by a satellite constellation operator.
Considering the constraints of the existing provisions in respect of proposed satellite gateway(s) operations, there is a need for suitable licensing framework. To this end, DoT had requested TRAI to examine all the factors holistically and recommendation on licensing framework for satellite gateway(s) operations may be suggested including the entry fee, license fee, bank guarantee, NOCC charges, and any other issue(s) which may be relevant for LEO/MEO/HTS systems.
In this regard, the consultation paper seeks stakeholder’s inputs on whether there is a need to have a specific licence for establishing satellite earth station gateway and the kind of licence/permission that should be envisaged, whether such earth station licence should be made available to the satellite operator or its subsidiary or any entity having a tie-up with the satellite operator, and the mechanism/framework that should adopted to regulate the access to satellite transponder capacity and satellite based resources of a Satellite operator/earth Station licensee in order to get the resources in a time-bound, transparent, fair and non-discriminatory manner.
The TRAI has invited written comments from the stakeholders by December 13, 2021 and counter-comments by December 27, 2021.
