After a long wait of over three years, Elon Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink seems all set to start offering its services in India.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is said to be in the process of granting Starlink the licence to operate satellite broadband services in India. The DoT is reportedly awaiting approval from telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal and union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, following which its Satellite Communications Wing (SCW) would issue a letter of intent (LoI) to the company.
With the LoI, the company will have to submit a one-time fee of INR 2.4 Cr along with a specific form of bank guarantees and sign the licence agreement with the DoT. Post this, it will receive the Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence for a period of 20 years.
With this, Starlink would become the third company to receive the licence after Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications. However, it will still need approval from the Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) for setting up earth stations for the satellites.
Bharti-backed OneWeb got IN-SPACE’s approval in November 2023 to offer its services in India, while Starlink and Jio Satellite Communications are yet to receive approvals. Apart from the three, ecommerce giant Amazon also sought an approval from IN-SPACe for its satcom arm, Project Kuiper, in October 2023. It also applied for the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licence in November last year.
As Starlink gears up for the launch of its services in India amidst high competition, here’s everything you need to know about the company.
How Does Starlink Provide Internet Services?
Startlink is a division of Musk’s spacetech company SpaceX. Starlink uses its constellation of over 5,200 small satellites in the lower earth orbit to provide high speed internet services almost anywhere, from remote areas to even water bodies like the ocean or seas.
The company’s satellites orbit at a distance of 550 km from the Earth, covering the entire globe
These satellites transmit the internet to portable flat phased array antennas, which are the Starlink Kits. A user needs to plug the antenna and point it to the sky without any obstructions in its path to connect to the internet in minutes.
Starlink claims its users typically experience download speeds between 25 and 220 Mbps, with a majority of users experiencing speeds over 100 Mbps. Upload speeds are typically between 5 and 20 Mbps, which make it suitable for streaming, video calls, online gaming, and other typical household internet use.
Starlink’s services are currently available in 71 countries.
What Will Be The Price For Starlink Services?
Starlink has long been interested in the Indian market. The company began taking pre-booking for its services in India in 2021. However, it stopped taking the preorders following the directions of the DoT.
After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, Musk said Starlink’s service will be of great assistance to remote or rural areas, where there might be no internet services or expensive and poor internet services.
While access to the internet in India has improved a lot over the last few years, remote areas and those with sparse populations don’t always have access to uninterrupted, high speed internet. This is the market which all major satellite internet providers, including Starlink, are targeting.
However, Starlink’s price point may not be exactly suitable for an average Indian household.
The base price for the equipment is expected to be around INR 37,400, along with a per month service charge of INR 7,425, company’s former Indian head Sanjay Bhargava said in a LinkedIn post in 2021.
As per the company’s website, one can pause and unpause the service at any time.
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