Elon Musk’s Starlink has inched closer to the commercial roll-out of satellite broadband services in the country, having secured provisional spectrum for trials, according to sources.
The road to commercial roll-out
The department of telecommunications (DoT) said Starlink will initially establish ground infrastructure at 10 sites nationwide, with Mumbai as its hub. The company must now build landing stations — hardware that connects satellites to terrestrial networks — and demonstrate compliance with Indian security norms before proceeding towards commercial roll-out.
The final spectrum allocation is still pending, with the Digital Communications Commission set to meet soon to decide pricing and terms. Once its recommendations are sent to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), companies like Starlink can formally launch services.
Low-cost broadband for underserved regions
On pricing, officials have indicated that Starlink’s monthly charges in India would be significantly cheaper than in neighbouring countries such as Bhutan and Bangladesh, where users currently pay around Rs 3,000 a month plus a one-time installation fee of Rs 30,000. With India’s larger customer base, tariffs are expected to be nearly one-third of it.
Satellite communications are particularly suited to remote, mountainous, and disaster-prone regions where laying fibre-optic cables is either impractical or prohibitively expensive. This could help expand internet access in underserved areas across India.
Starlink has been eyeing the Indian market since 2021 but ran into regulatory trouble after it began taking pre-orders without clearance, prompting authorities to order customer refunds. The company, which already operates in over 125 countries, has also tied up with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to enable Aadhaar-based customer verification.
Other global players are also exploring the Indian market. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is awaiting approvals, while Globalstar — Apple’s Satcom partner — has expressed interest in offering services here.