Dear Patrons,

SIA-India wishes you a very Happy New Year.

There is ambiguity on the spectrum allocation and the SatCom industry is going through a very crucial phase. The association has made a submission to the Telecom Regulator (TRAI) for allowing the satellite and the gateways to operate on the spectrum in the 27.5 GHz - 28.5 GHz band.

In a US Senate Committee hearing in January 2020, Jessica Rosenworcel, now Chair of the Federal Communication Commission, admitted that the attention on mm-wave frequencies for 5G had been a mistake as it risked deepening the digital divide between urban areas and rural communities "... our focus on millimeter wave spectrum is threatening to create 5G haves and have-nots in the United States. That's because while these airwaves have substantial capacity, their signals do not travel far. As a result, commercializing them is costly-especially in rural areas. The sheer volume of antenna facilities required to make this service viable will limit deployment to the most populated urban areas. This will deepen the digital divide that already plagues too many rural communities nationwide."

In November '21, TRAI in its consultation paper had asked whether there is a requirement of creating a separate license for the satellite earth station gateways. SIA-India has stated that the license of the gateway earth station should not be linked with a license for providing satellite-based services. Creating a separate framework for gateway license would enable infrastructure sharing and avoid duplication of investment which would reduce the capex involved by the companies in rolling out new services. Further, it would facilitate the faster rollout of new services.

The licensing procedures must have clarity and must comprehensively address gateway earth stations, including a hub for Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), GMPCS Systems, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and MSS-R. There should be a separate license for Gateway Earth Station for Providing Satellite Based Services in India.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and TRAI are exploring ways to optimize the country's spectrum resources as several airwave bands are useful for both satellite multicast services, satellite broadband and 5G mobile broadband. TRAI has also released a consultation papers in this regard "Auction of Spectrum in frequency bands identified for IMT/5Gspectrum" that has foundational implications for the industry in C Band and 28 GHz band. The association would make its submission after consolidating member inputs. Last date for submission of comments 10-January-2022. Please find a link to the CP here: https://bit.ly/3mBQZhK

SIA-India has already made several representations to NITI Aayog, TRAI, DoT and MIB on key industry concerns on the spectrum for satellite. India's space policy must align satellite spectrum identification and allocations with the ITU identified radio frequency spectrum for the ITU region that supports global harmonization of the spectrum for space activities and protects existing satellite transmissions from harmful frequency interference.

Frequencies in the `C' and `Ka' bands are critical for satellite industry in India. The C band (3.7-4.2 GHz) has been in use in India for decades for broadcast, connectivity, e-governance, education, telemedicine, disaster response, financial trades etc. TV content is broadcast over C band to over 200 Million households via C band frequency. More than 80 C-Band satellites are in orbit covering India and Asia-Pacific and there are more scheduled to be launched soon. The sector is by nature investment-heavy and huge amounts have been invested by various players, both domestic and international. If C band frequency is sliced up and part thereof allocated for 5G services it would not only hamper the business plans of many companies but will also lead to interference issues.

The 28 GHz band (27.5-29.5 GHz) is used by the satellite industry and powers almost all significant technology breakthroughs in satellite communications due to the physical characteristics of the band. WRC 19 has identified 17 GHz of spectrum for IMT (Cellular mobile services) out of which 3.25 GHz (24.25-27.5 GHz) is in Ka Band.

Since this band was allocated for satellite communications, a substantial investment by various space organisations including ISRO, has gone into development, manufacturing and launching satellites into orbit that are dependent on the 28 GHz band. Any discrepancy in the availability or any type of undue segmenting would lead to satellites not being able to operate at optimum capacity, interference issues and unused spectrum would seriously jeopardize the satcom missions.

This particular spectrum, if not allocated administratively, goes against the grain of global best practices of satellite spectrum allocation and a globally harmonized spectrum as stated above.

Satcom is an essential part of our economy and immense value add to the Government, Industry and Citizens. They are over 900+ TV channels being distributed to digital platform operators, nearly 50,000+ cable operators and nearly 70 million DTH subscribers Reaching 200+ Mn HH, Beamed over 140+ countries, satellite plays an important role in video distribution value chain. The satellite communication landscape served by companies like Hughes, Airtel, NELCO etc enable 5 Billion ATM transactions annually through 125000 VSAT enabled ATMs and help network the $2 Trillion equity market besides providing cellular backhaul, enterprise networking, rural connectivity as well as in-flight and maritime communications. Nearly 40,000 Villages are empowered by e-Governance today > 1000 Movies are distributed annually through satellites which also helps in piracy prevention; nearly 20% piracy reduction > 50,000 Gas Stations Automated.



Satellite is the only solution of connectivity in areas where fibre is difficult to reach. The critical Ka band 27.5-29.5 GHz band is NOT identified by the ITU for IMT/5G. This band is quintessential for the SatCom industry in India for satellite technology to reach the unconnected nook and corner of the country.

In another first, SIA-India organized a Space conference 'Satellite Ground segment- Way forward' on Friday, 17 December 2021. The conference was a huge success with participation by 25 distinguished speakers and professionals alongside Policymakers, legal experts and standards association. Close to 500 delegates from 31 countries attended the virtual event.

So far the need for ground stations has been limited with the use of conventional satellites operating upon GSO, which operated with a single wide beam spanning a large area. Now newspace brings up innovation in Launch vehicles, satellites, payloads etc. The future of space technology lies in satellite constellations. Several satellite constellations are launched and many are planned which would be operating on the LEO and MEO through narrow beams requiring multiple earth stations and terminals for smooth operation of satellites.

• Satellite ground segment technologies
• The satellite ground segment business economics
• Standardization in Ground Segment [a workshop jointly held wth IEEE-SA and TSDSI]