Elon Musk-promoted satellite internet consternation company Starlink is reportedly close to getting approval for operations in India.
India’ telecom ministry is considering granting approval to the Musk company to start its service in India, The Times of India (TOI) reported.
Starlink’s proposal for India operations has been stuck with India’s home ministry for months over security reasons.
The telecom ministry is expected to hold a meeting later this month to discuss the proposal of Starlink for a global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) services license, and it is likely to be passed, the TOI report said, citing an unnamed source.
The report, however, said some last-minute hiccups cannot be ruled out.
After the GMPCS, Starlink would need to get approvals from several government wings and the space ministry before it can commence launching its operations in the country.
Currently, Reliance Group’s Jio and Airtel-backed One Web have GMPCS licences in India.
Jio is in a partnership with Luxembourg-based SES.
Starlink was reprimanded by the telecom ministry in 2021 when it started taking advance orders for its devices in India without having a license.
Over 5,000 subscribers had placed their pre-orders costing about $99 each. The company was also asked to refund the money collected from Indians.
Earlier in June, Reuters reported that Starlink is lobbying India not to auction the satellite broadband spectrum and just assign licences in line with a global trend.
It said the spectrum is a natural resource that should be shared by companies. An auction may impose geographical restrictions that will raise costs, it said.
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