- Access DoT’s spectrum rules from here: PDF
On June 18, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) published the draft Telecommunications (Spectrum Assignment by Administrative Process) Rules, 2026, setting out how the government assigns spectrum without an auction across 19 categories of users under the Telecommunications Act, 2023. The draft is open for public comments for 30 days, until July 18, 2026. It builds a full framework for traditional satellite services but leaves out the operators behind consumer satellite broadband, including Starlink.
What the Rules Cover and Leave Out
1.Traditional GSO satellite services are covered: On the satellite side, the rules price and set conditions for Geo-Stationary Orbit (GSO) services, where a satellite stays fixed over one point above the equator. They include:
- Teleports.
- Television channels and Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV.
- Digital Satellite News Gathering.
- Corporate Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) connections.
- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)’s satellite phone service.
2. Satellite broadband operators are left out: The draft does not cover Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) operators, which run constellations of satellites in lower orbits to deliver fast, low-latency internet. Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio Satellite Communications are all NGSO operators. The fee schedule under Annexure IX names only commercial GSO VSAT and BSNL’s satellite phone and does not mention NGSO at all.
3. The omission keeps broadband on hold: Starlink, OneWeb, and Jio already hold Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licences and authorisations from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). What they lack is assigned spectrum, which the government cannot assign until it sets a price and conditions. By skipping NGSO, the draft keeps commercial satellite broadband from launching, even as the government promotes satellite broadband for the remote and hilly areas that fibre cannot easily reach under the National Broadband Mission 2.0.
Security agencies have also reportedly frozen Starlink’s final clearances over national security concerns, Bloomberg reported in June 2026, a hurdle for Starlink that sits alongside the missing spectrum framework. Starlink has disputed the report, saying it remains in active discussions with the government.
4. DoT has not used TRAI’s advice: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and DoT have been working through satellite spectrum since 2021 through a long reference trail of consultations and clarifications. DoT sent a fresh reference on satellite commercial services in July 2024, and TRAI gave its final recommendations in May 2025, advising a charge of 4% of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), the share of an operator’s revenue on which it pays government dues, for NGSO fixed satellite services. This draft implements none of them.
The Conditions for Covered Operators:
A…
Source link
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We blogs.grocliq.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on for any glitch kindly connect at [email protected]
