Industry
Starlink takes a step closer to India
Summary
- The Department of Telecommunications has approved the grant for Elon Must-owned Starlink
American satellite internet company Starlink, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has been allowed to offer satellite broadband services in India, two officials aware of the development said. The department of telecommunications (DoT) has approved the grant of a global mobile personal communication by satellite or GMPCS licence to the company.
“The licence has been approved. We got the go ahead from the commerce ministry on details they had asked for and they (Starlink) have provided," one of the officials cited above said, asking not to be named.
After it gets past a couple more hurdles, Starlink will become the third satellite broadband service provider in the country, after Bharti group-backed OneWeb India, and Reliance-backed Jio Satellite Communications. Their services, though, will take a few more months to get activated, after the government makes changes to the Telecommuncations Act 2023.
The people cited above said Starlink has given a declaration that it does not have investors from countries with which India shares land borders, clearing the hurdle it faced from the department of promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), which had asked details of its shareholder, before giving approval. The company was learnt to have cited US regulations for not providing the details as required by the ministry.
While a formal communication to the SpaceX-owned company has been issued, a letter of intent will be given out over the next couple of days, one of the officials said.
Queries emailed to SpaceX and the DoT remained unanswered as of Sunday evening.
Starlink will also need an approval from Indian space regulator Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), which functions as an autonomous agency in the department of space and signs off on commercial launches of satellite players.
Plus, it will be able to begin services only after the government fixes the price of airwaves, which will be allocated on a non-auction basis. The airwaves will be needed by Starlink or any other carrier it partners with for getting access to the airwaves, to provide services in India.
According to officials, the process of seeking pricing of the airwaves from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is yet to begin since the rules under the Telecommuncations Act 2023 are yet to be formulated.
“We’re yet to begin work on the rules and it is unlikely that they will be put in place before a few months. We expect at least six months before satellite broadband services can be started commercially," the second official cited above said, giving estimates that he said may not be time bound.
Starlink had first applied for the licence in November 2022. Eutelsat OneWeb’s local subsidiary OneWeb India, backed by the Bharti Group, received authorisation from IN-SPACe in November 2023 to launch its commercial satellite broadband services in India. And Reliance’s Jio Satellite Communications, which is yet to get IN-SPACe authorisation, has a global JV with partner SES to access latest medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite technology, which can offer Gigabit, fibre-like services from space.
Starlink may also face competition from Amazon, which is in the final steps of applying for an operating licence for satellite communications. Mint had reported last October that the Seattle-headquartered firm is in the process of applying for a satellite communications service operator’s licence for its Project Kuiper service, and will seek to officially file it with the DoT.
