DoT approves provisional satellite spectrum allocation

Department of Telecommunications has approved provisional satellite spectrum allocation to eligible players for six months to test their services.

As per an official notification issued on October 10:

NGSO-based communication services are being deployed for the first time in India by Licensees using authorised NGSO constellations. With a view to enable such Licensees to demonstrate compliance to security and technical conditions, the competent authority has decided that spectrum may be assigned on provisional basis subject to the following conditions:

(i) Possess both of the following:

• Satellite-based communication service License/ Authorisation, issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT), and
• IN-SPACE Authorisation Certificate for NGSO constellation to be used by the Licensee for provisioning of capacity in India

(ii) Purpose of provisional assignment of spectrum: To demonstrate all the compliances related to security and technical conditions by the Licensee.

(iii) Period of validity of provisional spectrum assignment: upto 6 months or till compliances related to security and technical conditions are completed and demonstrated by the Licensee whichever is earlier.

(iv) No services on commercial basis are to be provided.

(v) Charges: Rs. 1,10,000 (one-time, non-refundable).

(vi) Terms and Conditions:

• No claim can be made for regular use/ assignment of the provisional spectrum frequencies.
• Any regular spectrum assignment will be subject to the regulations/policies including authorization framework, spectrum pricing mechanism etc., prevalent at or after the time of expiry of the above security compliance period.
• In case of interference to the existing usages/ telecom operations due to this assignment, operations shall be stopped immediately. The operations shall commence only after the matter gets resolved.
• The Licensee may request for import of Gateway and/or User terminals for the said purpose.
• The Licensee shall ensure that the network is isolated, safe and secure from all the vulnerabilities.
• The Licensee, for security compliance purpose, shall use the same network that is intended to be deployed for the commercial launch of communication services.
•  The data generated during the security compliance period shall be stored within India and the Licensee shall ensure the security, secrecy and privacy of such data. The Licensee shall also share the location of server/ data center and possession details thereof to DoT.
• The Licensee will not share the data generated during operations with anyone except LEAS without explicit permission of DoT. All LEAs shall have right to inspect and seek data from the deployments of the Licensee/ terminals.
• Every fortnight from the date of provisional spectrum assignment, the Licensee must report the deployment details of the user terminals (name, address, geo-coordinates, etc) to the DoT and LEA.

The order will come into effect from October 21, 2024.”

OneWeb and the Jio-SES partnership have received the necessary approvals so far.
BCS Bureau