“Satellites will play an important role in the (5G) ecosystem, and regulatory decisions must take into account the spectrum requirements of all parts of the ecosystem, not just the mobile component,” a report by the SatCom Industry Association (SIA) recommended. It argued that the policymakers are under pressure from “terrestrial mobile operators” to repurpose spectrum to meet new technical requirements for 5G. SIA wrote that the “5G advances were not unique to terrestrial networks”* as satellite broadband has been using these advances for years now. It called for an audit by either the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to ascertain the “fair and sensitive treatment of incumbents versus increasing demands for spectrum from the protagonists of 5G”. The state must review the feasibility of the mobile network operators’ business plans and monitor their…
