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Elon Musk's Starlink has received an important Letter of Intent (LoI) from India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) license. This approval represents great progress in Starlink's satellite internet services in India.
Starlink's approval comes after months of regulatory setbacks due to what ultimately led to a policy amendment by the government of India. The first contentious clause was removed—the requirement to have a majority Indian-owned and controlled company and the border area of control.
The government of India's amendment to its proposed rules was made to be more in line with laws and policies governing foreign investment to pave the way for Starlink and ease Starlink's entry into the country.
The original proposal by the DoT had clauses requiring monitoring areas for maintaining internet security applications both across Indian borders and within their borders. Starlink objected and claimed that they require technical systems and avoid legal issues from those proposed regulations.
The government of India compromised by removing the 10 km “across-border” clause but keeping the 50 km “within-border” requirement. The adjustments satisfied both Starlink and the DoT and kept in line with national security objectives.
The earlier condition of majority Indian ownership for satellite companies created another hurdle. Starlink had objected to the condition because it was in line with the existing FDI policies. The Department of Telecommunications later removed this condition and stated that current FDI policies applied to such projects, opening the door for 100 percent foreign capital acquisition.
Since the LoI has now been released, Starlink will shortly submit to the Indian space regulator, IN-SPACe, for clearance and seek spectrum assignment from the Department of Telecommunications. With subsequent clearances, Starlink will be among other like-minded satcom licensees, namely Eutelsat, OneWeb, and Jio-SES, as players in the Indian satcom space industry, contributing to the flagship Gati Shakti program.
The entry of Starlink is an immense boost for India's increasingly buoyant satellite internet and space technology landscape. The amended regulatory framework demonstrates India's continuously improving perspective with international tech firms.
Given India's growing connectivity needs, particularly in rural and remote areas, the potential for the GDP impacts emerging from Starlink's services in support of India’s digital economy is substantial.
