SpaceX owned Starlink has recevied the necessary license to start operations in Bangladesh. The announcement of the Starlink service will be made on Monday (today) at a government backed investment summit. According to an AFP report, Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud, chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority confirmed on Sunday that Starlink has received the approval to operate in the country. This is right when the company is also looking to start services in India. Both Jio and Airtel, the major Indian telecom operators have announced a partnership with Starlink.
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The Dhaka interim authorities are looking to get diplomatic support from the United States (US). Elon Musk, owner of Starlink, has a huge sway in the White House. Donald Trump led US government has put a new tariff rate of 37% on the Bangladesh goods, compared to the previous 16% on cotton.
Mahmud told the media that the approval was given to Starlink way before Trump even announced the new tariffs. However, the approval does look like trying to get in the good books of Elon Musk to eventually get help from the White House.
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Trump has raised the import tariffs for many nations, including India. Starlink's entry in the sub-continent was anyway going to happen sooner or later. The timing, however, makes it seem like these are steps from the Bangladesh government to get US to reduce the import tariffs. Elon Musk is great friends with President Trump and also is now in the government office speaheading DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). The Bangladesh government will likely ask Musk for getting help from the White House. Starlink's expanding its business in the South East Asia with newer markets like India and Bangladesh.
