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Highlights
- SpaceX owned Starlink has yet again started putting in efforts to start business in India.
- Starlink has not been able to tap into India.
- Despite trying for more than half a decade, Starlink has not been getting permission from the Indian government to start services.
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
SpaceX owned Starlink has yet again started putting in efforts to start business in India. Starlink, which operates a satellite constellation globally, has not been able to tap into India. Despite trying for more than half a decade, Starlink has not been getting permission from the Indian government to start services. There have been security concerns in the eyes of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) with granting permission to Starlink.
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Starlink Applies for Gen 2 Satellite Constellation Yet Again
Starlink, in 2025, got approval from IN-SPACe for starting services in India with Gen 1 satellites. Now, the company has applied for Gen 2 satellites approval as well.
“The company has recently applied to get authorisation for its Gen 2 constellation… at an altitude of 340-615 km in low earth orbit (LEO),” a person aware of the developments told ET.
With the Gen 2 satellites, the company will be able to offer faster, and D2D (Direct-to-Device) services as well. The government of India has already been working to enable D2D services in the country. Starlink also wants to tap into that, and thus, has renewed efforts to get approval for Gen 2 satellite operations in the Indian geography as well.
India may allow or not allow Starlink to do this, however, even after the approval, none of the satcom (satellite communication) companies, including Starlink, will be able to start services. This is because the government has not cleared the rules around the spectrum allocation for the satcom companies. Until that happens, even Airtel and Jio owned entities will also have to wait to switch on services. Starlink has been trying to start services in India from 2019-20, and yet, the delays have only pushed the company into an endless struggle to do so. Keep reading TelecomTalk to stay updated with the tech and telecom developments in the country.
