SIA-India completes one year of representing the Satellite industry in India this day of 30 March 2022. In this period the association has successfully brought together industry leaders, both domestic and international, to discuss various opportunities and challenges of the satellite industry in India, the need for easy business processes, spectrum issues, new businesses, hand holding for young entrepreneurs, role of academia and a strong legal arm to help navigate through the international treatise, M&A amongst other issues.
Driven by the dynamic leadership of Dr Subba Rao Pavuluri; President SIA-India, the association stands on firm footing and poised to face the new space economy challenges in the coming months.
On the occasion Dr Subba Rao Pavuluri said: ‘This year is a critical year for the SatCom industry, and a lot depends on a balanced Spectrum Policy, Ease of Doing Business with Open Sky Policy and the liberalisation of FDI norms etc. This would create a feasible and sustainable ecosystem for the business to thrive, eventually allowing the laws of economies to scale to play out, helping the service providers to take the satellite broadband to the unserved and underserved areas at very affordable rates bringing billions of FDI in and raising employability. The end benefit would be passed on to the user and the economy as a whole’
The day is marked with the launch of a white paper ‘Satellite Spectrum Allocation-International Best practices and Leanings’- The paper stresses that Space-based communication is very different from terrestrial communications, both are different technologies and cater to markets that are complimentary. A forward-looking approach is needed to adopt the best practice based on technology, neutrality and market dynamics in line with international best practices by policymakers and regulators.
The international trend does not support auction of spectrum for satellite. Out of the 193 ITU member countries, very few including the US, Mexico and Brazil, have ever attempted to auction satellite spectrum in the past. All such experiments have been abandoned and the practice of auctioning satellite spectrum has been replaced with a globally adopted administrative process.
The need of the hour is an Open Sky Policy wherein the Satellite operators having capacity over India are permitted to provide full spectrum bandwidth to the Indian users in a competitive manner so that satellite capacity pricing is made available at an affordable level to all.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bashir Patel, Sr Regional Advisor, Inmarsat and Coordinator for Global Satellite Operators Association [GSOA] said: ‘India needs an optimal mix of fixed-line, satellite, Wi-Fi and mobile broadband to ensure a faster inclusive penetration to end the digital divide. The quantity of Spectrum needs to be allocated between all the service types fairly and optimally. Allocating too much spectrum for a given service can be as inefficient as allocating too little.’
On the occasion Mr Anil Prakash; Director General-SIA-India said: ‘I take this opportunity to thank each and every member organization, international bodies, academic institute, law firm and particularly the individuals representing the said bodies for their unstinting support through this period. It is this support that has been the key to SIA-India gaining the stature in this short time span. I look forward to the continued support to allow us to rally on ahead’.
