Elon Musk's Starlink Gets Approval to Launch Commercial Operations in India

New Delhi: Billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink has received the nod from India’s space regulator to launch its commercial operations in the country.

On Wednesday (July 9), Starlink was granted a licence by Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), which cleared the only remaining regulatory hurdle for the satellite provider to enter the market, reported Reuters.

Since 2022, the Musk-led firm has been waiting to operate commercially in India. IN-SPACe said that the licence issued to Starlink is valid for a period of five years.

After the approval of IN-SPACe, Starlink has become the third company to receive India's nod to enter the space. Previously approving applications by Eutelsat's (ETL.PA) OneWeb and Reliance Jio were granted permission.

The next step for Starlink would be to secure spectrum from the government, set up ground infrastructure, and also demonstrate through testing and trials that it meets the security rules it has signed up for.

In May this year, Starlink had received a letter from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to offer its services in India.

The DoT issued the approval after Starlink agreed to meet the new national security guidelines of Government of India (GOI).

Earlier, the Washington Post had cited State Department Cables to report that the United States had pushed some nations which are facing the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump to approve Starlink owned by Musk, who at the time was a close aide of Trump.

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