New Delhi: The Jeff Bezos-led Amazon has written multiple times to the Indian government to expedite the approval for a satcom permit, even though it has lagged behind schedule to launch satellites.
Officials aware of the details said the company has written several letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT) concerning its application for a satcom permit. So far, the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) that oversees all satcom applications is yet to take up Amazon‘s application. “They want to present their security compliances to the IMC and are seeking time for it,” said an official.
A query sent to Amazon regarding the letters for expedited approval remained unanswered.
The company has around 200 satellites in low earth orbit (LEO), and they can demonstrate security compliances to the agencies; and a clearance from them would secure the letter of issuance (LoI) for Amazon. However, the company is much behind schedule to launch satellites. It also got a public rebuke from Brendan Carr, chair, US regulator Federal Communication Commission (FCC), a few days ago for the delay.
Amazon has sought a two-year extension till July 2028 from FCC to meet the halfway target. The company has only launched around 200 satellites of its planned 3,200 satellites for the LEO constellation. To offer services in India, the company applied for a permit in October 2023 and in October last year, gave unconditional undertaking to follow all the security conditions.
The company, experts feel, is seeking expedited approval as it fears Elon Musk-owned Starlink will enjoy a first mover’s advantage when commercial services are launched in grabbing majority of retail and enterprise clients. Amazon has sought to offer three-times the capacity of Starlink in India.
Amazon Leo plans to have massive satcom capacity in India with 10 gateways and two points of presence.
Experts said that capacities generated by Amazon Leo and Starlink-which already have over 7,000 LEO satellites in space-would by far be the highest among competitors. In contrast, Eutelsat OneWeb has 648 LEO satellites, and the Jio-SES combine will have around 11 medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites.
Currently, non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites in India have a total bandwidth capacity of about 70 gigabits per second (Gbps) while that of geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites is lower at about 58 Gbps. But once the LEO constellations are operational, the capacity will skyrocket to a few terabytes.
The government is planning to allocate spectrum to satcom majors in the coming month. The DoT is finalising the rules and pricing for satcom spectrum. Once approved by DoT’s highest decision-making body, the Digital Communication Commission (DCC), the proposal would be sent to the Cabinet. The DoT is of the view to charge 5% adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as charge for satcom spectrum, with a 1% discount for hard to connect areas, differing from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which had proposed a 4% charge and a levy ₹500 for urban connections.
