20 December 2021

SpaceX-owned Starlink said it will apply for a commercial licence in India next year, in a move that would see the company provide broadband and other services to the country.

During a presentation by country director Sanjay Bhargava, the company confirmed it plans to have 200,000 Starlink devices in India by December 2022, with 80% of these in remote, rural areas.

“We hope to have applied for a commercial licence on or before 31st January 2022 (unless we hit some major roadblock),” Bhargava also posted on LinkedIn.

He added that “for a lot of users, Starlink makes sense… A 100% Broadband India will require collaboration across stakeholders, service providers, and technologies, and we encourage everyone to think about their use cases and develop connectivity plans for districts as well as private use”.

Starlink said it has received more than 5,000 pre-orders for devices in India, in spite of the government’s advice against doing so. The Indian government has warned consumers that Starlink does not have a licence to operate in the country.

India has emerged as a major arena for telecommunications operators across both broadcasting and connectivity services. Starlink, launches small satellites into a LEO network to provide broadband services in areas that terrestrial internet infrastructure can struggle to reach.