Elon Musk on Wedesdat thanked telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for not agreeing with Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal on auctioning spectrum for satellite services, and said that he is looking forward to serving Indians.
Reacting to Scindia’s statement that satellite spectrum will not be auctioned, Musk, in a post on X, said, “much appreciated! We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink”.
As reported earlier, Musk is locked in standoff over satellite spectrum with Ambani and Mittal. While Ambani’s Reliance Jio has been vocal about the need to allocate such spectrum through an auction to give a level playing field to legacy operators who buy airwaves and set up infrastructure like telecom towers, Mittal on Tuesday articulated the need for satellite companies wanting to serve retail customers in urban areas to buy spectrum as telecom companies do.
Musk-led Starlink has been in favour of administrative allotment of spectrum in line with the global practice. This has found the backing of Scindia, who said on Tuesday that such airwaves will be given out through administrative allocation and not auctioned.
