India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued its Spectrum Approval authorisation for Starlink. But, separately, there’s a major sting in the tail. The DoT approval allows Starlink to initiate its services in India. This reportedly marks the first time any company will be providing satellite-based broadband internet to Indian consumers.

However, India’s Minister of State for Rural Development & Communications, Chandra S. Pemmasani, said that Starlink will be limited to a maximum of “20 lakh connections across India”. One lakh is the equivalent of 100,000 units. If correct, this Minister will limit Starlink to just 2 million connections.

Starlink, in a separate announcement, said it is in the process of building an eventual 20 teleport gateways across India. Discussions are taking place with existing ground station operators with the aim of getting its service fully operational.

“Starlink got a provisional spectrum to provide satellite broadband services in India a few days back. The company has initial plans to set up base stations at ten locations in the country, with its hub in Mumbai,” a senior DoT official says, quoted by the New Indian Express.

According to reports, Starlink is in discussions with data centre operators, including Sify Technologies, STT, Equinix and CtrlS Datacenters, and internet exchange providers such as DE-CIX and Extreme, fibre infrastructure firms like Microscan, and telcos Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Tata Communications for access to their sites.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: india, starlink