India's communications minister has called comments from Elon Musk's Starlink 'promising', saying spectrum for satellite broadband services will be allocated without auctions.

Responding to a post on social messaging platform X by Alex, Musk said, "NEWS: @Starlink In India's Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said today in an interview with the Press Trust of India that spectrum for satellite broadband will be allocated, not auctioned as sought by telco tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal".
'Promising', was Musk's reply.

A battle is raging in India right now, with Indian telcos Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel on one side and global satellite firms Starlink and Amazon on the other, over the spectrum allocation mode of satellite spectrum and its pricing to support broadband-from-space services.

India's largest telecom operators have argued for fair treatment of telecom and satellite services by telling the Trai that only auctioned satellite spectrum should be used to service urban or 'retail' consumers as they believe Starlink, Amazon and other international satellite operators plan to offer satellite broadband services in urban areas and directly compete with local telcos.

In a recent submission to Trai, Starlink called the telcos' demand "self-serving, at the cost of underserved users".

Global satellite operators rejected the call of telcos to auction the satellite spectrum, terming it a "misleading approach." They have maintained that since satcom airwaves are a shared resource, they can't be auctioned. The likes of Starlink and Amazon plan to use their low-earth orbit global satellite constellations to launch broadband-from-space services in India.

Addressing media persons on Wednesday, Minister Scindia was quoted as saying that not a single country auctions spectrum for satellite services, and every country-India included-had to follow the International Telecommunications Union, which laid out the policy on the assignment of satellite spectrum. This, since India is a member of the ITU, the UN's specialised global agency for information & communication technologies and spectrum management.

Satcom-based broadband services have yet to see the light of day in India as the government hasn't yet finalised the rules on pricing and method of spectrum allocation. That can happen only after Trai issues its recommendations on these matters.

Currently, only Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and a Jio-SES combine have the statutory clearances and permits to start satcom services in India.

Applications of Starlink and Amazon Kuiper among others are pending with Indian authorities. US-based Globalstar too is keen to expand its satellite broadband services to India.

India's space sector regulator, IN-SPACe estimates that the country's space economy has the potential to hit $44 billion by 2033 and account for about 8 percent of the global share from around 2 percent now.