The government may soon approve a license to Elon Musk-owned Starlink for providing satellite broadband services in India, sources close to the development said on Tuesday.
An interministerial committee (IMC) was held on Tuesday, chaired by Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), with officials from Starlink, senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, and other related departments, sources in the know told businessline.
“We had fruitful discussions today and are hoping things will go smoothly and positively. The meeting today was only about security clearances, purely on security issues. We had raised some questions to the company (Starlink), like what kind of security protocols they have once they start the services and how they could be intercepted,” a senior official privy to the developments said.
Requesting anonymity, the official said there is no change in the licence regime yet. Everyone in the meeting wanted the services to start soon.
If the licenses are cleared, Starlink, operated by SpaceX, will be competing with Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Satellite Communications and Sunil Mittal’s OneWeb India Communications, who have already got the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPC) licenses. While OneWeb’s license is effective August 2021, Jio’s license is effective March 2022, and both are valid for 20 years.
The sources also said that discussions took place around Jio and OneWeb and their progress on the pilot projects. The two were given licenses for trials
Improved connectivity
Satellite communication is still at a nascent stage in India, but once it kicks off, it will play a significant role in connecting all the unconnected areas today. The services are provided through Geo-Stationary Orbits (GSO) and Non-Geo-Stationary (NGSO) communication satellites.
However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is still deciding whether to allocate spectrum through auction or non-exclusive shared spectrum.
But companies have high hopes that they will get the ‘green signal’ soon. For instance, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, told businessline in August that OneWeb was ready to launch the services around Diwali if the government gives the approval at the earliest.
The company has 634 Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, which are up already, and ground stations are in advanced stages, he said.
And, apart from Jio, OneWeb, and Starlink, there are other global companies too, like Amazon’s Kuiper project and Canada’s Telesat, that want to participate in India’s satellite growth story.
