Musk's satellite venture Starlink may still take time to enter India orbit

The telecom dept hasn't issued a global mobile personal communication licence to Starlink, a prerequisite for it to start commercial services in India

Elon Musk, who will be coming to India next week, might have to wait a while before his company, Starlink, can provide satellite communication services in the country. 

Starlink is a constellation of over 5400 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites which offer communication services like mobile broadband across 70 countries around the world. But in India the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has still not issued the global mobile personal communication (GMPCS) licence to Starlink, which is the basic prerequisite for it to be allowed to kick off commercial  services in the country. The company had applied for the licence in November 2022. 

The DoT is planning to ask the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for its recommendation on the administrative price of spectrum, which satellite communication players need for providing mobile broadband services. The DoT will take a final call on the matter only after Trai’s recommendations are in.

The regulator is also likely to look at the modalities of allocating spectrum to the various players, what services will be permitted, the period of the licence, and so on. 

A senior official in DoT said: “We have not issued Starlink a GMPCS licence and their proposal is under process. There is no question of giving a conditional licence.” 

The company’s application for GMPCS has to be cleared by the ministry of home as well.    

“It will take more than three months for the process to be completed. We are planning to refer to the Trai to determine the administered price of spectrum and other modalities. The regulator will have a consultation process with all key stakeholders, after which, it will give its recommendations,’’ the official said.

Of the three contenders for providing mobile broadband services in the country, Sunil Mittal’s One Web and the Reliance-SES joint venture have already received the GMPCS license. One Web runs a global constellation of LEO satellites for providing satellite broadband services and Reliance-SES will offer mobile broadband on medium earth orbit and a geostationary satellite constellation.

While One Web has also got the authorisation of space regulator Indian National Space promotion and Authorisation Centre, Reliance-SES is yet to get it.   

The Indian Space Association (ISpA), the association of satellite operators which includes among its members One Web, the Tatas and many others, has, however, raised some concerns. Lt General A K Bhatt (Retd), director general of ISPA, said: “Even during the earlier consultation there was a discussion on how the administered price will be determined. Any delay in deciding on this is an opportunity lost. We hope the recommendations of the regulator comes soon.”

Last year Trai came out with a consultation process on whether the spectrum required by satellite operators should be auctioned or offered administratively or offered in any other way. Reliance Jio had opposed administrative price allocation and demanded the auctioning of spectrum to ensure a “level playing field”. However, One Web, Starlink and the Tatas favoured an administered price allocation.

The government had earlier pushed for the auctioning of spectrum for satellite communication players. But the final Telecom Bill which was cleared by Parliament and has now become law, incorporated a clause permitting spectrum to be offered for satellite communication through the administrative price mechanism rather than through auction.     

Government officials have confirmed that like One Web and Reliance-SES, Starlink has also applied only to offer B2B services. This is an about-face of sorts as Musk’s earlier strategy was to offer satellite broadband through a B2C model, which simply means connecting the satellite to homes.  

Starlink offers this service in the US and in India it had taken pre-bookings from customers even before getting a licence. After a DoT warning they returned the deposits to the customers.

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