The Indian government’s approval of Elon Musk-owned Starlink’s satellite broadband services operations in the country is likely to be on the back burner for some time, despite the telecom department taking an internal decision to give them the green light.
Starlink will have to seek approvals from the interior ministry as well as security agencies, according to two people familiar with the details. This will be in addition to the approval required by the department of telecommunications and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), the designated single window agency for space activity approvals in India.
“The commercial aspects have been cleaned up, but there is still the security overhang. Maybe permission is needed from the interior ministry and law enforcement,” said one of the two people, who asked not to be named.
The second person, also asking not to be named, said the telecom department’s internal approval to allow Starlink to operate in the country alone will not be suitable for it to start business here.
“They have some concerns about ownership, which they have made a statement about, but it would not be enough because of the possibility of their presence in some other geographies,” the official said, referring to a set of satellites coming in China and a lack of clarity about its. connection with Starlink.
Mint reported in January that the department of promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) had asked for details of its stock patterns. The company is learned to have cited US regulations for not providing the details of a full disclosure of ownership, as required by the commerce ministry, in this case. But consequently it gave a statement that it has no investors from countries with which India shares borders.
It is unclear at this time what prerequisites the interior ministry or security agencies will seek. Questions to the communications ministry, the nodal body that must give final approval to Starlink, and SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company, did not elicit answers as of Sunday evening.
The government, for its part, has changed the foreign direct investment (FDI) rules of the space sector, which now allow up to 49% FDI under the automatic route for satellite launch vehicles and up to 100% FDI under the automatic route for manufacturing satellite sector components and under – systems. It also allowed the allocation of spectrum for satellite broadband on a direct allocation or non-auction basis, which means players like Starlink only have to pay a fee to get airwaves for their services if it plans to offer them in India or partner with. carrier that already has spectrum.
Starlink is the main competitor of Eutelsat’s local subsidiary OneWeb, OneWeb India, backed by the Bharti Group, and Reliance’s Jio Satellite Communications, which has a global JV with partner SES to access the latest medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite technology. which can offer gigabit, fiber-like service, from space.
While OneWeb has started testing the service, after receiving authorization from IN-SPACe in November 2023 to launch its commercial satellite broadband services in India, Jio’s satellite operations have not yet received the authorization. Starlink may be the latecomer in this case, as it applied for the license for global mobile personal satellite services (GMPCS) in November 2022. It opened pre-booking channels in India in 2021 but had to return about 5,000 bookings. advances it took because it was not a licensed entity in the country.
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Published: 24 Mar 2024, 19:58 IST