Elon Musk's Starlink gets licence for satcom services in India

Starlink is the third company to get a licence from the ministry, which has approved similar applications by Eutelsat's OneWeb and Reliance Jio to provide services in the country.

New Delhi: Elon Musk's Starlink has got licence for satcom services in India, according to sources.

Starlink is the third company to secure the licence from the Department of Telecom (DoT).

DoT sources confirmed that Starlink has indeed received licence, and said they will be granted trial spectrum in 15-20 days of applying for it.

Starlink is the third company to get a licence from Department of Telecommunications, which has approved similar applications by Eutelsat's OneWeb and Reliance Jio to provide services in the country.

Starlink and the Department of Telecommunications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Starlink has been waiting since 2022 for licences to operate commercially in India but delays have occurred due to reasons including national security concerns. Amazon's Kuiper is still waiting for its India licence.

In recent months, Musk's company has also clashed with Ambani's entity Jio over how the country should grant spectrum for satellite services. India has sided with Musk that spectrum should be assigned and not auctioned.