Starlink to apply for commercial license in India by Jan 31, 2022

Elon Musk’s controlled Starlink will soon start providing Internet services in India. The company will apply for a commercial licence in India to provide broadband internet services to the users in India. The announcement comes days after Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India warned Starlink to get the necessary permission that is required to offer satellite-based internet services in the country.

Talking about its plans of rolling out the internet services in India, Sanjay Bhargava ,Starlink Country Director, said on its plans of rolling out the internet services in India in his LinkedIn post, “We hope to have applied for a commercial license on or before 31st January 2022 (unless we hit some major roadblock).

We felt it would be useful to prepare two guides that help in thinking about and planning for Starlink - one for Individuals and Private Sector and one for State And Union Territories. The company cannot offer services in India without acquiring a licence to do so. Post the orders by the DoT, Starlink had closed its pre-booking portal which was previously available.

Starlink aims to install 2,00,000 devices in India by December 2022. Out of which, Starlink hopes to install 80 percent of devices in rural areas. Bhargava in his Linkedin post said that India will require collaboration across stakeholders, service providers, and technologies to provide 100 per cent broadband connections.