Govt sets up committee for single window clearance

The government has set up a committee to provide a single-window clearance platform to all satellite-related networks, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary K. Rajaraman said.

“… to enable speedy decision making, an apex committee having representatives from the Department Space, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, the Telecom Engineering Center, the NOCC, WPC has been authorized to perform the same work as a single platform clearance,” he said while speaking at a virtual satcom summit organized by Broadband India Forum (BIF).

“Considering the requirements of ease of doing business and keeping in mind the need of industry, the clearance procedure for satellite networks is being simplified,” he added.
Accordingly, a licensee or applicant has now been mandated to seek in-principle clearance from the said committee to establish new networks.

Rajaraman said the telecom department has also set up a taskforce on developing a rich and vibrant ecosystem for satellite communications and also received some recommendations from it.

“… we are in the process of examining that for a better ecosystem for satellite space communication in India,” he said.

The government official also said the demand for both — terrestrial and satellite-based communications — has increased which has put stress on the finite spectrum resources.

“In particular, C-band (4GHz to 8GHz) and Ka-band (26.5-4GHz) frequencies are necessary for space-based as well as terrestrial communication services. The Ka-band is important for high throughput satellite services as well as for 5G services. Since spectrum is a finite resource its value can be augmented through sharing by various services,” Rajaraman said.

However, satellite players and telecom service providers are in a tug-of-war over the use of the 28GHz band .
Satellite players want the 28GHz and some higher bands to be reserved for them but telcos contend that the spectrum in this range be used on a shared basis for 5G, considering that satellite players will require spectrum only in selected areas.

The telecom department has meanwhile sent a reference to Trai, seeking fresh base prices for a gamut of airwave bands, including mmWave bands 26GHz and 28GHz, as well as the allocation methodology.

India is seen as a key emerging satellite internet market with an over $1 billion near-term annual revenue opportunity as nearly 75% of rural India does not have access to broadband with many locations still without cellular or fibre connectivity. The Greater India