Need separate pan-India licence for Satellite Earth Station Gateways: TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended the creation of a separate pan-India licence for Satellite Earth Station Gateway (SESGs).

Releasing the licensing framework for establishing and operating SESGs, TRAI said on Tuesday that the proposed SESG licence under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act can be valid for a period of 20 years, with a provision of renewal for 10 years.

A satellite gateway (also referred to as a teleport or hub) is a ground station that transmits data to/from the satellite to the local area network. It houses the antennas and equipment that convert the Radio Frequency (RF) signal to an Internet Protocol (IP) signal for terrestrial connectivity. Only companies registered under the Companies Act, 2013 of India shall be eligible to apply for an SESG Licence.

TRAI said the licensee may establish SESGs in respect of one or more government-approved satellite systems. It has allowed the sharing of satellite earth station resources among the proposed SESG permit-holder and a telecom service licensee.

“The SESG licensee may provide satellite-based resources to any entity, which holds a licence/ permission granted by DoT or Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) and is permitted to use satellite media for the provision of services under its licence/permission,” TRAI said. These service licensees will, in turn, have to install their own baseband equipment at the SESG.

The discourse regarding new mobile satellite services in low and medium earth orbits that are currently coming online globally, have usually revolved around the need for launching quite a large number of satellites, maintaining them in orbit and replacing failed units. However, less emphasis has usually been placed on the fixed earth stations acting as “gateways” to the terrestrial network.

The SESG licence will come with a non-refundable one-time entry fee of Rs 10 lakh. However, the SESG licensee shall not be permitted to provide any kind of telecommunication service or broadcasting service directly to the consumers. As a result, only a token licence Fee of one rupee per annum shall be levied on the licence, TRAI said.

Consequently, TRAI has directed that no frequency spectrum be assigned to SESG licensees since they wouldn’t be providing services directly to consumers. On the other hand, the eligible service licensees should be provided the frequency spectrum based on the allocation of transponder bandwidth in the concerned satellite system, it has said.