Scindia says 'ready to give license' to Elon Musk's Starlink, but with a condition

Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that companies, including Elon Musk’s Starlink, vying for a license to operate satellite internet service in India have to “check all the boxes.”

“We are ready to give a license to anyone, including Starlink. They have to comply with all our concerns. We have to see that all security concerns are addressed,” ANI quoted Scindia as saying.

“There is a specific format. You have to check all the boxes. When you check all the boxes, you get the license. If they do that, we will be very happy,” he added.

The minister’s statement came days after he confirmed that the government will set a fixed price for the satellite spectrum, in line with international norms established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), rather than selling it through competitive bidding.

"Every country has to follow the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is the organisation that lays out the policy for spectrum in space or satellites, and the ITU has been very clear in terms of the spectrum being given out on an assignment basis. In addition, if you look across the world today, I cannot think of a single country that auctions spectrum for satellite," Scindia had said.

Global satellite internet providers like Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper back an administrative allocation, in contrast with Indian telecom giants like Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel, which had called for an auction-based approach.

Satellite internet can reach rural and remote areas more easily than traditional telecom services, allowing companies like Starlink to potentially capture market share in a country with a rapidly growing need for internet access.

Only Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications have received operating licenses in India, and they worry that they could lose customers to new satellite internet services.