Will Starlink finally get green light in India? Elon Musk’s satellite internet faces crucial test this week

Elon Musk-led Starlink is set to conduct demonstration runs on October 30 and 31 in Mumbai to showcase its compliance with security and technical conditions for satellite broadband services, PTI reported on Wednesday, citing people aware of the development.

The demo, which will take place before law enforcement agencies, will use the provisional spectrum assigned to Starlink.

The exercise marks a key milestone for the US-based satellite internet firm as it moves closer to launching commercial operations in India.

The security and technical compliance demonstrations are mandatory before Starlink can secure final clearances from the government.

“Starlink will run a demo to show compliance with the security and technical conditions of GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) authorisation. This will be conducted in Mumbai on October 30 and 31,” one of the sources said.

According to an Economic Times report, Starlink plans to establish nine gateway earth stations across India, including in Mumbai, Noida, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Lucknow, as it builds out local infrastructure ahead of launch.

The company has reportedly applied for 600 gigabit per second capacity over India using its first-generation satellite constellation. Spectrum has been provisionally assigned to enable demonstrations related to security compliance, the report added.

Starlink has also been permitted to import 100 user terminals for testing fixed satellite services only.

As part of the testing phase, the government has imposed stringent security conditions to prevent misuse of satellite communications. Only Indian nationals will be allowed to operate the gateway stations until foreign personnel receive security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Starlink is the third firm, after Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satellite arm, Jio Satellite Communications, to be granted provisional airwaves for security demonstrations. However, none of the three have yet obtained final security approvals.

India has already issued GMPCS licences to Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio-SES, while Starlink has received a letter of intent.

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently said the rollout of satellite broadband services will begin once operators complete their execution plans and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) finalises spectrum pricing.

“It depends on the players in terms of how quickly they can roll out their execution strategy,” Scindia said at the India Mobile Congress 2025. “There is one issue that TRAI has to still finalise — the spectrum pricing. That is the pending part, and that regulator will do.”