After Tesla, Elon Musk's satellite internet venture, Starlink, is a step closer to starting its services in India.
The company is poised to receive approval from the space regulator, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), shortly after submitting the required details, The Economic Times (ET) reported.
The development comes days after Tesla posted about a dozen job openings in India. It was later reported that the electric vehicle (EV) giant is planning to launch operations in India in April, with showrooms in Mumbai and Delhi.
This follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with tech billionaire Elon Musk during his trip to Washington, where Musk reportedly urged Modi to grant a license for Starlink and ease tariffs for Tesla.
License and Spectrum Needed to Start Services
According to the ET report, IN-SPACe's standing committee, which includes officials from the Home Ministry and the Department of Space, is reviewing Starlink's application and has received all necessary details for clearance from the satellite broadband provider.
Starlink has reportedly agreed to key provisions to comply with India's security regulations, but certain conditions, such as setting up monitoring zones near international borders, are still under discussion. As part of its compliance, Starlink will implement geolocation-based restrictions to prevent unauthorised movement of user terminals. The company will also establish its network control and monitoring centre in India and has committed to not routing India-generated data through gateways in countries sharing land borders with India, even if it sets up gateways there in the future.
However, even if Starlink secures IN-SPACe approval, it would still need a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) license from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and spectrum allocation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
So far, only the Reliance Jio-led consortium, which includes Eutelsat OneWeb, has received a GMPCS license, though it is still awaiting spectrum allocation.
A major point of contention in Starlink’s entry into India has been the spectrum allocation process. Musk has opposed the traditional auction method used by TRAI and instead advocated for administrative allocation. This stance has angered Indian telecom players, including Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.
Last year, the government announced that satellite communication (satcom) spectrum would be allocated administratively and charged accordingly.
Besides Musk’s Starlink, Jeff Bezos-owned Kuiper has also applied for a GMPCS license.
