05 January 2022
Starlink, part of Elon Musk's SpaceX, has been forced to issue refunds for pre-orders in India, despite not having received a commercial licence in the country.
Starlink was accepting pre-orders from Indian customers throughout last year, with Sanjay Bhargava, Starlink’s country director for India, revealing in December that over 5,000 people had paid the US$99 pre-order deposit.
However, accepting pre-orders without a licence drew criticism from rivals, with an industry body writing to the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) as early as March 2021 to complain. In late December, the DoT finally took action, barring Starlink from accepting any further pre-bookings for commercial services.
Starlink has now been ordered to offer refunds for the pre-orders, acknowledging that there are numerous regulatory and licencing issues that still need to be resolved before they can offer commercial services in India.
“Until that time, we have been directed by India’s Department of Telecommunications to refund pre-orders until we are licensed,” read the email.
Back in December, Bhargava said that he hoped to apply for a commercial licence on or before January 31 2022, suggesting that the company could have 200,000 Starlink devices operational in India by the end of 2022, following a planned rollout in April.
