New Delhi: Tesla is not the only agenda when Elon Musk meets PM Narendra Modi, but figuring prominently in talks will be Starlink, the satellite communications business of his space company SpaceX.
Musk’s satellite internet venture has been trying for more than three years to get a licence in India, but has failed to pass govt scrutiny, even being reprimanded by the department of telecom in late 2021 for accepting customer bookings, without licence.
“The matter of Starlink will be taken up during the meeting between Musk and Modi, and the American businessman will apprise govt of the role and benefits of the satellite company in connecting far-flung areas and ensuring connectivity across difficult terrains,” sources told TOI.
It’s not that govt has not been working on Musk’s proposal for satellite communications — something where OneWeb (where Sunil Mittal is one of the promoters) and Reliance Jio have managed to get licences from the telecom department — but a “series of issues” resulted in delays in approval for the American company.
“One of Musk’s efforts will be to inform govt of the connectivity initiatives that have been made possible due to satellite communications. The company has many such examples where satellite communications have come in handy in difficult terrains or during challenging situations,” one of the sources said.
For example, Starlink had been used by Ukrainian troops for a variety of efforts, including battlefield communications in the war against Russia (though there have been reports that Russian troops were also using Starlink, something denied by Musk).
Starlink is a network of satellites in low Earth orbit, which can provide internet to remote locations, or areas that have had normal communications infrastructure disabled.
Some of the policy decisions enabled by govt recently also give hope to companies, such as, Starlink to look at India favourably. The new telecom law, that was approved by Parliament in December last year, provides for allocation of spectrum to satcom players through administrative method (without auctions), meeting one their key demands.
The move had come as a shot in the arm for not only Starlink but others like Jeff Bezos’ satcom venture Project Kuiper of Amazon. The latter is also in the process of applying for licence in India. “The companies, while studying the regulatory needs and requirements in India, are also waiting for clarity on spectrum allocation norms for satcom. Govt is yet to provide details on administrative spectrum allocation, and the price one would need to pay for it.”
DoT has given the task of defining spectrum matters on satcom to regulator Trai, which is currently in the process of recommending norms. Starlink’s team has been in constant touch with the telecom ministry, and the matter is also being looked into by other wings of govt, such as, home, and commerce and industry ministries.
