The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its letter dated 13th August 2018, informed that based on the TRAI recommendations dated 12th May 2014 on 'Provisioning of INMARSAT Satellite Phone Services', M/s BSNL has been granted a service license dated 25th August 2014 for 'Provision and Operation of Satellite based services using gateway installed in India' under "Sui-generis" category by DoT. Presently, the annual spectrum charges for the Gateway and user terminals are levied on formula basis (proportional to the number of terminals and frequency bandwidth used). M/s BSNL has been requesting to change the present methodology of spectrum charging from formula based to Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) based for provision of this service in line with the commercial VSAT service. Therefore, DoT requested TRAI to provide its recommendations on the method of levy of annual spectrum charges as per the provision under section 11(1) of TRAI Act 1997 as amended.

In view of the above, Consultation Paper on "Methodology for levy of Spectrum Charges for provision of Satellite based Services using Gateway installed in India under 'sui-generis' category" has been released on 10th October 2018 to discuss the issues involved and possible solutions.

Click here to read Consultation Paper on "Methodology for levy of Spectrum Charges for provision of Satellite based Services using Gateway installed in India under 'sui-generis' category"

Written comments on the issues raised in the Consultation Paper are invited from the stakeholders by 31st October 2018 and counter-comments by 8th November 2018.