Starlink, a satellite communications (satcom) company owned by SpaceX has filed papers to start services in South Korea. The development was reported by Reuters (via Yonhap). Starlink's website suggests that it would start services in the second quarter of this year in South Korea. Starlink has deployed a constellation of satellites to offer internet services to people across the world. Satellite internet can reach places where terrestrial networks can't. Thus companies such as Starlink can bridge digital gap between the urban and rural areas of most countries.
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However, Starlink's services are quite expensive. Because it's satellite broadband, it's definitely going to be more expensive than traditional internet. The company charges $99 from the customers to pre book an internet connection. Now that alone is super expensive. Then, the customers have to also pay additional money for equipment and subscription plans.
In developing countries and rural areas, satcom services could be too expensive to purchase. However, satcom players can also help the terrestrial network services providers. Both can potentially partner to reach out to areas where internet services are missing and also, terrestrial network service providers can take help of satcom companies for backhaul in India.
Starlink tried coming to India, however, things didn't work out well for the company. Starlink was ordered to refund all the money to the customers who pre-booked their connections. This is because the company didn't have a license to sell services in India. Now, there has been no communication or announcements from Starlink about launching internet services in India.
The Indian telecom sector regulator is currently working on the recommendations for the method of allocation of spectrum to the satcom players. The government wants to understand whether the spectrum can be given to the stacom players via administrative spectrum allocation or a spectrum auction route is the best.
