Starlink, a major satellite communications (satcom) company globally has not yet started services in India. This is because Starlink is yet to receive the GMPCS (global mobile personal communication by satellite) license by the government. Elon Musk owned Starlink has been trying to enter the Indian market for several years now. Tracking back to 2022, the company was directed by the government to refund all the pre-booking amount to consumers in the country. Starlink was selling pre-booking of connections without securing the license, and thus had to ultimately comply with the order from the government.
But even after years, why has Starlink not been able to secure a license in the country? Here are a few reasons.
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Starlink Not Complying with the Government Request to Furnish Details on Owners
Starlink has not complied with the Indian government's request of furnishing the details on the names of its stakeholders. It is important for the goverment to know who the stakeholders are because there should be stakeholder that shares border with India. This is a major security issue for India, and Starlink has not shared this info with the government.
Apart from this, there are more things that the company has to provide a clarity on. Things such as where the data of the users will be stored, and how could the data be accessible to the authorities in special cases, and so on.
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India is ready to provide Starlink with the license, but the satcom company will have to first comply with the necessary security protocols. The reason why Starlink can't ignore the Indian market is its sheer size. A market with more than a billion people is one that no company in the world would want to ignore. Since satcom is in its inception stage, all the companies in this "space" (pun-intended) would like to establish themselves as a trustable player in the minds of the customers.
Starlink has already reached more than a 100 countries with its services, but India is a market that is still left for the company to announce its arrival. One of the other challenges that Starlink has in India is how will the spectrum be allocated in the country to the satcom players. This is a debate that is still going on.
