Elon Musk's Starlink may soon get a nod to start its services in India

Elon Musk's Starlink may get a licence to start its service in India from the telecom ministry. The satellite company has been stuck with the home ministry over security reasons for months now, but the latter is believed to hold a meeting later this month to discuss the proposal of Starlink for a global mobile personal communication by satellite services license.

The proposal is likely to be passed, a source was quoted as saying in the report. However, some last-minute hiccups cannot be ruled out.

Following the GMPCS, Starlink would need to get approvals from several government wings and the space ministry, after which it can start working towards launching its operations in the country. 

Currently, Mukesh Ambani's Jio and Sunil Mittal-backed One Web have GMPCS licences in India. Jio is in a partnership with Luxembourg-based SES. 

 Jeff Bezos also has a similar project titled "Kuiper," but it is yet to come to India. 

Starlink was reprimanded by the telecom ministry in 2021 when it started taking advance orders for its devices in India without having a license. Ober 5,000 subscribers had placed their pre-orders costing about $99 each. The company was also asked to refund the money collected from Indians. 

Earlier in June, Starlink was reportedly lobbying India not to auction the satellite broadband spectrum and just assign licences in line with a global trend. According to the company, the spectrum is a natural resource that should be shared by companies and an auction may impose geographical restrictions that will raise costs.