Bharti Airtel rejects Jio view on commercial usage of allocated satcom spectrum

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Key Points

Reliance Jio, India's telecom market leader, and Bharti Group are on course for a fierce battle over using spectrum allocated administratively, or without auctions, for satellite-based fixed wireless access (FWA) services...

Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb has rejected billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio's contention that administratively allocated satellite spectrum can't be used for offering commercial FWA services merely since it is a 5G use case..

Eutelsat also feels 5G-based FWA and satellite-based FWA are distinct services with different business models and there is no justification in Jio pushing the government to ensure only satellite-based FWA services are offered through auctioned spectrum...

It's a clear fact that 5G-based FWA services will be directly offered by telcos to millions of retail users whereas satellite-based services will only be offered in the country's remote, unconnected regions, primarily to enterprises, defence forces, government health centres and for disaster management operations via a B2B model," a senior Eutelsat OneWeb executive said.Eutelsat.