Reacting to the Centre’s rebuttal that India’s framework for satellite services is non-discriminatory and that companies must demonstrate compliance, trillionaire Elon Musk has claimed Starlink has spent five years complying with every Indian law and asked why it has still not got a licence.
“A post is being circulated on social media regarding the fairness of India’s regulatory framework for satellite communication services and suggesting that it is being applied in a discriminatory manner. The ministry pointed out that telecom licences have been granted to three Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite services – Starlink, Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms.
The Government has put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services,” it said. READ | “Fair Policy”: India Rejects Elon Musk’s “Starlink Stalled” Claim The ministry said that once this is done, the companies can ask for spectrum to be assigned. The same claim was made by Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX’s vice president for Starlink business operations, who said that the company had invested in infrastructure specifically designed to meet Indian regulatory and security requirements, including keeping user data within the country.
In a statement issued on Thursday morning, the Ministry of Communications said the claim was baseless.
The controversy began on Wednesday, when Musk, responding to a user on X, said Starlink, which is a satellite internet service, was being blocked in India by some “oligarchs”.
