Elon Musk’s satellite communication service provider, Starlink, will be receiving approval from the government by next week.
Mukesh Ambani-led Jio Satellite Communications and Sunil Bharti-led OneWeb (Bharti Enterprises) have already received similar licenses from the government of India.
Read on to find out all the details!
Starlink To Receive Approval From Government Next Week
As per reports, Starlink has sent a response to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which asks for a clarification on the company’s shareholding pattern.
Back in 2020, DPIIT had made changes to its foreign investment policy which required companies to declare their shareholding or investments in countries that share a land border with India.
However, Starlink had argued against the move stating that US privacy laws prevent complete disclosure on shareholding. This was responded to by DoT asking for clarifications on the privacy laws of other countries.
Starlink also sought a global mobile personal communication by satellite service (GMPCS) license in order to offer commercial space broadband services in India. The company also declared that none of its investors are from countries that share a land border with India. This especially included China.
As per sources, “Both the Secretary (Telecom) and the Minister (Ashwini Vaishnaw) are abroad, but once they are back this week, DoT may issue the letter of intent (LoI) to Starlink by Wednesday.”
Starlink To Receive Approval From Secretary and Minister
Additionally, DoT is also getting a note ready for approval by the Secretary and the Minister. After this, the Satellite Communications Wing (SCW) of the department will also send its approval to the company.
Starlink will be the third company to get the GMPCS license in India. OneWeb and Jio Satellite received their licenses in 2022.
Additionally, Elon Musk’s venture has also received approval from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in order to deploy global satellite bandwidth capacity in India.
As per reports, Jio has also completed all required submissions to IN-SPACe and is expecting authorization soon.
