en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed authorizing communication satellite operators as infrastructure providers to collaborate with telecom operators in offering commercial communication services to users. This proposal received consent from multiple satellite companies and telecom operators during a recent public consultation.

At the public consultation organized by TRAI, satellite companies such as Amazon Leo, telecom operators including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, as well as enterprise communications provider Tata Communications, supported TRAI's recommendation to establish separate tiers for network providers and service operators. The industry think tank Broadband India Forum (BIF) opposed this view, arguing that this emerging sector should be treated as an independent service rather than a strictly wholesale infrastructure tier. A BIF spokesperson stated that defining satellite communications solely as an infrastructure layer contradicts the superior Telecommunications Act of 2023, which explicitly lists satellite communications as an independent service. Reliance Jio, which has announced plans to launch its own satellite constellation, also opposed the two-tier framework, deeming it unnecessary as existing satellite gateway and virtual network operator frameworks already adequately address the issue. The push to separate satellite communication networks from the service layer stems from the Indian Department of Telecommunications' rejection in January 2025 of TRAI's earlier proposal for a unified network and service layer, citing that such a move would cause severe operational inefficiencies. In written submissions to the regulator, satellite companies including Starlink, Amazon Leo, and Oneweb welcomed the establishment of separate tiers, stating that this would enable them to operate under a satellite communication network-as-a-service model, where satellite operators focus on providing wholesale capacity while leaving retail obligations to partners.