Elon Musk, owner of US satcom major Starlink, responded to comments made by India’s communications minister that spectrum for satellite broadband services will be allocated without auctions. Musk made the statement responding to a post on social messaging platform X, formerly Twitter, by a user named Alex.
"NEWS: @Starlink 🇮🇳 India's Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said today in an interview with the Press Trust of India that spectrum for satellite broadband will be allocated, not auctioned as sought by telco tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal. Every country has to follow the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is the organisation that lays out the policy for spectrum in space or satellites, and the ITU has been very clear in terms of the spectrum being given out on an assignment basis. In addition, if you look across the world today, I cannot think of a single country that auctions spectrum for satellite,” Scindia said," posted Alex.
To this Elon Musk responded by saying "promising".

In the interview, the telecom minister said that not a single country auctions spectrum for satellite services, and every country (including India) has to follow the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which lays out the policy on assignment of satellite spectrum. This, since India is a member of the ITU, the UN’s specialised global agency for information & communication technologies (ICT) and spectrum management.

A fierce battle is currently underway in the country between telecom companies Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel — and global satellite firms — Starlink and Amazon — over the allocation mode of satellite spectrum and its pricing to support broadband-from-space services.
Telecom companies argue for auctioning spectrum to ensure fair competition. Making a case for equal treatment of telecom and satcom services, Reliance Jio and Airtel have told the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that only auctioned satellite spectrum must be used to service urban or ‘retail’ consumers as they believe that Starlink, Amazon and other global satellite operators plan to offer satellite broadband services in urban areas and directly compete with local telcos.

Satellite broadband services are yet to start in India as the government has not yet finalised the rules on pricing and method of spectrum allocation. That can happen only after Trai issues its recommendations on these matters.