Starlink, a satellite communications (satcom) provider, will soon start operations in India. The government is finally comfortable with the company operating in the country. Starlink now plans to deploy nine gateway earth stations across India to start services. These stations would come in cities such as Mumbai, Noida, Kolkata, Chandigarh, and Lucknow. The company has applied for 600 Gbps capacity over India through the Gen 1 constellation. For the unaware, Starlink has different generation of satellites operating globally to offer services to customers. The Gen 1 is the oldest batch of satellites, but will get the job done.
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According to an ET report, the company has been allowed importing of over 100 terminals by the government and testing of the fixed satellites. Some tough condtiions have been imposed on the company as it undertakes the demonstrations of the required parameters. Satcom is a critical way to communicate, and can pose national security threats. Thus, the government is very stritct over the norms over how Starlink will operate in the country and how the data will be stored.
The company is not allowed to store any of the data of the Indian customers outside India as per the licensing norms. Starlink has had a long wait for starting services in India. It has been more than five years for the company for just trying to get the permissions from the government. There were concerns around data storage, and data sharing, which needed to be resolved.
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Apart from Starlink, there are other companies such as Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio-SES that are looking to launch services in the country. The government of India needs to give more clarity around the allocation of spectrum for commercial services before the services can go live.
