Elon Musk’s Starlink Working on Indian Security Clearance for Satellite Broadband

Elon Musk’s Starlink is seeking security clearance for a licence to offer satellite broadband services in India and will get a permit if it satisfies all conditions, the telecoms minister said on Tuesday.

Starlink has been looking to enter India for years and its plans got a major boost last month when New Delhi said it wouldn’t auction spectrum for satellite broadband but rather award it administratively – just as Musk wanted. Rival Indian telecom billionaire Mukesh Ambani had wanted an auction.

Indian telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday that Starlink was in the process of obtaining security clearance, which requires it to satisfy New Delhi that the company processes and stores data locally, and that its satellite signals are secure.

“When you check all the boxes, you get the licence. If they (Starlink) do that, we will be very happy,” Scindia said at an event in New Delhi.

Security clearance would take Starlink one step closer to Musk’s plans to offer broadband to Indians, a market Ambani’s Reliance Jio currently dominates with 14 million wired subscribers.

Ambani, Asia’s richest man, also has more than 479 million Indian telecom users, but is concerned that after spending $19 billion (roughly Rs. 1,60,324 crore) in airwave auctions, he now risks losing broadband customers and potentially data and voice clients to Musk as technology advances, Reuters has previously reported.

Reliance already has security clearance to launch satellite broadband services, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Starlink has told the Indian government it is willing to comply with all of New Delhi’s security requirements, said another source familiar of the matter.

After security clearance is obtained, companies still need to obtain spectrum to start offering satellite broadband services.

Ambani once gave data for free on his mobile plans, and Musk has adopted similarly aggressive tactics. In Kenya, Musk priced Starlink at $10 (roughly Rs. 843) per month, versus $120 (roughly Rs. 10,125) in the United States, unsettling local telecom players.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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