Musk’s Starlink Applies For DoT Approval To Provide Satellite Broadband In India

India could get Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service in India if approved by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

According to media reports, the parent company of Starlink, SpaceX, has applied for a licence to bring satellite broadband services to India. It has specifically applied for the Global Mobile Personal Communication Satellite (GMPCS).

Musk’s SpaceX is the third company to apply for this licence after Bharti Airtel’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satellite subsidiary, Jio Space Technology.

DoT officials told ET that SpaceX had previously applied for an experimental licence but had withdrawn it. The Musk-led company has now applied for GMPCS licence.

Several other players including Tata Group’s Nelco, Amazon and Telesat could be interested in delivering the internet services via satellite in India.

In 2021, SpaceX was asked to seek regulatory approvals and stop pre-orders from people by the DoT. The company had to return pre-booking money to many people in the country.

But even if Starlink receives DoT nod for GMPCS it won’t be ready to deliver broadband services immediately. The company will then need to get another approval from Department of Space and seek spectrum allocation for broadband services. Further, it will also have to establish earth stations within the geographical boundaries of India and deploy its global satellite bandwidth capacity in India.