Starlink gets greenlight for commercial operations in India, spectrum allocation awaited

India's space regulator on Wednesday greenlit Elon Musk-owned satellite network Starlink's proposal to launch commercial operations in the country.

Starlink, whose internet services utilise the expertise of Musk's spaceflight company SpaceX, had been waiting since 2022 to obtain commercial licences for India. Although it received the licence last month, it had been waiting for the green signal from the space regulator.

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According to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), Starlink's license to establish and operate a “Gen1 Constellation capacity” will be valid for five years.

Musk's company became the third to get a licence to provide satellite internet services in the country, after Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications. Amazon's Kuiper, however, continues to await regulatory approval.

Starlink utilises the world's largest Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation (550km above the Earth), typically offering internet download speeds of 25-220 MB/s, with most enjoying speeds over 100 MB/s. The company had also recently signed pacts with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, and Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel, both of whom control over 70 per cent of the telecom market.

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Starlink will now need to secure spectrum from the government, set up ground infrastructure, and also demonstrate using trial spectrum that it meets the security rules it had signed up for.

These deveopments follow Starlink and Amazon's first commercial agreement with Indian VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) providers on June 30. This collaboration is aimed at launching enterprises and government-focused satellite broadband services, as per a CNBC report. However, the spectra for the same have not been allocated yet.

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