The government will ask Elon Musk-led SpaceX Technologies to apply for relevant permits under India’s telecom rules before offering its Starlink satellite internet services in the country, a senior official said.
The telecommunications department is set to write to SpaceX, nudging the company to share details of its India plans to determine if it requires both internet service provider (ISP) and VSAT (very small aperture terminal) service authorisations under unified licence (UL) regulations or just one to offer high-speed satellite internet services in the country.
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“DoT has no objections to SpaceX offering the Starlink satellite internet service in India, but it must comply with the laws of the land and seek an appropriate licence and other authorisations before offering the service to Indian consumers,” the government official told ET.
SpaceX, which will compete in the global satcom space with Jeff Bezos-led Amazon‘s Project Kuiper and Bharti-backed OneWeb, has started accepting pre-orders for beta version of its Starlink satellite internet service in India for a fully refundable deposit of $99 (above Rs 7,000).
According to its website, the company expects to start offering internet connectivity to Indian users in 2022 through a maze of satellites it will launch into orbit.
DoT is likely to also seek clarity from SpaceX on the specific nature of services it wants to offer in India, the spectrum bands it proposes to use, and the foreign satellite capacity it will tap to deliver high-speed internet services.
DoT is also likely to seek views from the Department of Space (DoS) on whether SpaceX needs to apply to the Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to secure landing rights to use signals of foreign satellites in India for satellite internet services.
IN-SPACe is a recently formed central regulatory body within DoS mandated to attract private capital into the space sector and create a level playing field for private sector companies.
All this after an industry body, representing some of SpaceX’s global rivals including Bharti-backed OneWeb, Amazon and Hughes last month asked the government to stop SpaceX from pre-selling the Starlink beta services to Indian consumers on grounds that the latter did not have a suitable licence or authorisation.
Meanwhile, a war of words has erupted on the global stage over the reported near collision of Starlink and OneWeb satellites. SpaceX has reportedly accused OneWeb of spreading false stories that the companies’ satellites nearly crashed into each other recently.
OneWeb though has reportedly stood by its comments “as reported to the press”.
SpaceX and OneWeb did not reply to ET’s queries as of press time Thursday. Queries to DoT also remained unanswered.
