Elon Musk's Starlink gets in principle approval, one step away from launching in India

Elon Musk's satellite internet venture Starlink has received in principle approval from the Telecom ministry. This comes just days ahead of Elon Musk's scheduled meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In Principle Approval

The in principle approval has cleared a critical hurdle that the venture has been facing for almost three-and-a-half years. As per Times of India, the approval process which is at the desk of communication minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is awaiting final vetting by the home ministry over certain security matters.

"The commercial part has been examined on issues, such as, foreign investment and net worth. The essential examination shows that it (priniStarlink's application) is in line with the (official) guidelines. Thus, it has been approved", a person with the knowledge of the matter told Times of India

Once the approval is granted Starlink will be issued a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite services license, which is essential for offering satellite communication services in India. Currently, India has given the GMPCS licence to only Mukesh Ambani's Jio and Sunil Mittal-backed One Web. However, the manner of spectrum allocation and pricing is yet to be finalized by the regulator Trai.

Also Read: Elon Musk's satellite company Starlink may soon get India's approval to start service

Reuters in June reported that Starlink is lobbying India not to auction the satellite broadband spectrum and just assign licences in line with a global trend. However, Reliance had called for an auction in a public submission to the Centre.

Indian government's condition

A major concern of the Indian government was Starlink's ownership as the Centre does not want the company to have any stakeholders from countries that share a land border with India.

"The ownership issue had been a serious one and govt wanted to make sure that the company has no stakeholder from a country that shares land border with India. That would've raised a red flag. The matter is sorted now after the declaration," the person told Times of India.

Along with this the Telecom Ministry has also imposed mandates including that of KYC details and customer information of Indian users to not move outside the country. The government further requires an undertaking from Starlink that traffic over Indian airspace and waters should only terminate at a local gateway and the data beams from satellites should only land in India and not end up on foreign shores due to satellite movement.

As per Moneycontrol, Starlink may initially consider providing internet services directly to customers but may also explore the enterprise segment