Starlink, a global satellite communications (satcom) service provider, has received its unified license to operate in India. The company can start services in India now. However, there are still somethings which need to be finalised on the end of the government. The satcom companies are waiting for the government to decide and release details on many things including frameworks for spectrum allocation, infrastructure deployment and more. Jyotiraditya Scindia, union telecom minister of India, said that Elon Musk's Starlink has officially received a unified license to operate satellite based services in the country.
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Much recently, Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, Minister of State for Communications said that Starlink won't be a threat to the Indian telecom operators such as BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited). According to the minister, Starlink has been capped at 2 lakh connections in India. This number would surely be increased in the future, however, it is not going to happen in the short-term.
Apart from Starlink, there are two more companies in India who are fully ready to offer satcom services to customers. These companies are Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio-SES. However, neither of the two companies would intially focus on offering retail connections like Starlink. Starlink would be the only operator for some time offering retail satcom services to regular broadband consumers.
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The cost aspect of a Starlink connection is something that will only keep the company's services in highlight for a niche customer base in India. The kit cost as well as monthly broadband plans cost would likely be so high that any consumer who can, will choose fiber/airfiber over satcom. For more details about the launch of Starlink in India, stay tuned.
