Elon Musk’s Starlink may soon get a licence to start its services in India

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Elon Musk’s Starlink may get a nod to start its service in India from the telecom ministry, The Times of India (TOI) reported on Tuesday. The satellite company has been stuck with the home ministry over security reasons for months now.


The ministry is expected to hold a meeting later this month to discuss the proposal of Starlink for a global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) services license, and it is likely to be passed, a source was quoted as saying in the report. However, some last-minute hiccups cannot be ruled out.


After the GMPCS, Starlink would need to get approvals from several government wings and the space ministry. Then, it can start working towards launching its operations in the country.


Currently, Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and Sunil Mittal-backed One Web have GMPCS licences in India. Jio is in a partnership with Luxembourg-based SES. Jeff Bezos also has a similar project titled “Kuiper,” but it is yet to come to India.


Starlink was reprimanded by the telecom ministry in 2021 when it started taking advance orders for its devices in India without having a license. Ober 5,000 subscribers had placed their pre-orders costing about $99 each.


The company was also asked to refund the money collected from Indians.


Earlier in June, Reuters reported that Starlink is lobbying India not to auction the satellite broadband spectrum and just assign licences in line with a global trend. It said the spectrum is a natural resource that should be shared by companies. An auction may impose geographical restrictions that will raise costs, it said.


On the other hand, Reliance disagrees and has called for an auction in a public submission to the Centre, saying foreign satellite service providers could offer voice and data services and compete with traditional telecom players, so there must be an auction to achieve a level playing field.


In signs of deepening rivalry, an industry source was quoted as saying that Reliance will continue nudging the government to auction satellite spectrum and not agree to the demands of foreign companies. 


Interestingly, Starlink’s view on auctions is shared by Project Kuiper and One Web.