Finally, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has joined the satellite internet race in the country. The firm has applied to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for a global mobile personal communication by satellite services licence to introduce broadband-from-space services in India under its Starlink brand.
It is the third company to seek GMPCS permit in India. The other two entities that have been granted GMPCS licences are Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and Reliance Jio Infocomm’s satellite arm, Jio Satellite Communications. Tata group satcom company Nelco, Canada’s Telesat, and e-commerce giant Amazon are said to be eyeing to enter the space internet market in the country.
SpaceX requires approval from the Department of Space and after that needs spectrum allocated for offering services. It will also need to establish in-country earth stations and deploy its global satellite bandwidth capacity in the country. These clearances need to come from the Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre, a central regulatory body needed to captivate private capital in the space sector.
Under the Ministry of Communications, DoT asked Starlink to refund money to all customers in December last year. Initially, it has to get the necessary permissions required to provide satellite-based internet services. Later, Starlink announced that it would apply for a commercial licence in the country by January 31, 2022. But it hasn’t took place so far.