Musk’s Starlink wins as Centre denies Ambani, Mittal spectrum auction pitch

Elon Musk’s Starlink Inc has logged a win in the fight for India’s satellite broadband market with a government minister saying the spectrum will be allocated, and not auctioned as sought by homegrown billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal.

Airwaves for this use have been administratively allocated across the world and India will align with that trend, India’s telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters on Tuesday. But satellite broadband spectrum cannot be given free and the local regulator will oversee the pricing of this resource, he said.