The Department of Telecommunications has sent back for review most of the proposals made on satellite spectrum and pricing by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, says a Moneycontrol report.
As per the report, TRAI has made recommendations to charge an additional Rs 500 per year from every urban subscriber; however, DoT has raised concerns about the same due to challenges in differentiating the urban subscribers from the rural subscribers. DoT says that the issue could lead to misuse of the policy and compliance challenges.
Further, TRAI has recommended a minimum spectrum fee of Rs 3,500 per MHz per year; however, DoT is pushing for the higher prices, especially for the mobile satellite service, says the report.
TRAI recommendations on satellite internet
Earlier in May this year, TRAI suggested that the satellite internet companies such as Starlink, Jio Satellite and OneWeb should pay 4 per cent of the gross revenue as the spectrum charges to the government.
Further, TRAI also recommended that the company should be charged annually Rs 3,500 per MHz per customer and an additional levy of Rs 500 per urban customer. The regulator recommended that the Rs 3,500 per customer annual charge should be imposed only if the 4 per cent revenue pay fell short. TRAI said that the additional levy of Rs 500 for urban customers is done to motivate the companies to expand into rural areas
Another proposal sent by TRAI was to subsidise satellite terminals. The regulators recommended that the satellite terminals, which cost from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000, should be subsidised. TRAI said that the one-time installation subsidy would increase the adoption rate throughout the country. As per the report, DoT has also sent back the recommendation for further review.
Appeal against TRAI recommendation
In late May, the Cellular Operators Association of India wrote to the government appealing against the recommendations by TRAI, saying that the recommendations are non-transparent, unfair and unjustifiably low.