The Indian government has set up a committee for a single-window clearance platform for all networks that are based on satellite. This was claimed by K. Rajaraman, the secretary of DoT (Department of Telecommunications). While talking in a virtual satcom summit hosted by the Broadband India Forum (BIF), he said that to enable faster decision making, an apex committee with responsibilities from the Department Space, the Telecom Engineering Centre, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, the WPC and the NOCC has been authorised to carry out the same as a single platform clearance.
As per ET Telecom, he added that considering the requirements of ease of carrying out business and keeping the necessity of the industry in mind, the clearance procedure for the networks based on satellite is being simplified. As per the same, an applicant or licensee has been mandated to get the in-principle clearance from the above-mentioned committee to establish a new satellite-based network.
Committee For Satcom Clearance
Also, the telecom department has set up a task force to develop the satellite-based communications ecosystem. Already, the department has received some new recommendations regarding the improvement of this ecosystem. Now, Rajaraman added that they are in the process of analysing and examining to provide a better ecosystem for communications based on satellite networks in the country.
This move comes at a time when the satellite communications market in India is luring in a host of global players. Some of the companies that have expressed their interest to enter into the satcom market of India include Starlink owned by Elon Musk and Canadian company Telesat that will be partnered with Tata Group, Satcom services by Amazon and OneWeb led by Sunil Mittal along with the UK government’s partnership. These companies are betting big on the satellite communication ecosystem in India.
The researcher ICRA, which claims satellite communications as the next major thing in the Indian market has estimated that the country will have close to 1.5 million to 2 million users of satellite networks by the year 2025. Eventually, it adds that the annual revenue potential of this network will be between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 6,000 crore despite the current negligible level.
