A Collective Effort Needed for Satcom: Dr. PD Vaghela, Chairman, TRAI, at India Satcom 2021

Speaking at India Satcom 2021, Dr. PD Vaghela, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, said that satcom's development will take "a collective effort" from the industry stakeholders.

TRAI Chairman Supportive of Satcom

At the event, TRAI Chairman said that India has not yet exploited the full capabilities of satcom.

Talking about his visit to Odisha, he pointed to the problems that tribal people of the state have with connectivity. He added that broadband and fiber were "impossible to install" in the heavily forested area where thousands of villages were based. Dr. Vaghela then expressed hope that satcom can deliver connectivity to those tribes, and bridge the digital divide in general. Adding to that, he said that satcom will deliver huge benefits to areas where broadband and fiber penetration remains low.

He also said that satcom will not compete with any terrestrial network, but rather complement them. He also said satcom can also help with delivering broadband to inaccessible regions. Along with this, satcom will also provide backhaul to 5G networks, the next generation of mobile networks. Dr. Vaghela further said that for the success of satcom in India, there has to be "a collective effort from all the stakeholders in the industry".

Satcom Policy Recommendations, from TRAI to DoT

As the chairman of TRAI, he said that he, along with his counterparts at other stakeholder government departments, had the responsibility of developing an ecosystem. "It becomes our responsibility to come out with an ecosystem where this will be realized", Dr. Vaghela said. Talking about the policy framework for satcom, he shared various developments at India Satcom 2021. First, he said that he has been an advocate of the open-sky policy, that allows other entities to come and operate in India's satcom space. Second, Dr. Vaghela informed that the DoT had accepted TRAI's recommendation to allow VSAT players to provide backhaul to access service providers.

He also said that DoT further had allowed for active infrastructure sharing, which he reckoned would benefit satcom. Also, he shared that TRAI has sent a few more policy-related recommendations to DoT, and expressed hope that the latter will accept them. Furthermore, the TRAI chairman expressed his gratitude to the DoS and the DoT, saying that the departments "have done a lot for satcom over the last 5-6 years". However, he said that the policy framework still had room for improvement.

Towards the end of his Chief Guest address at India Satcom 2021, Dr. Vaghela listed out a few things needed for satcom. First, he called on the government to reduce levies charged on existing geosat players. Second, he asked for the development of a single-window system for all applications related to satcom; he even said that the government can, via DigiLocker, sign agreements online as well. He made a note of calling on the industry, the academia, and the start-ups to start working on the segment.

Lastly, he called satcom a very attractive sector for investors, since there are key foreign players preparing to enter the space.