Elon Musk’s satellite net plan in India hits a bump

Elon Musk-founded SpaceX Technologies’ bid for an initial India foray into satellite broadband faces its first challenge.An industry body representing the likes of Amazon, Hughes, Google, Microsoft and Facebook has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) asking them to stop SpaceX from pre-selling the beta version of its Starlink satellite internet services in India. It claimed SpaceX didn’t have licence or authorisation from the government to offer such services in the country.“We request you to urgently intervene to protect fair competition and adherence to existing policy and regulatory norms,” Broadband India Forum president TV Ramachandran said in the letters, seen by ET.Trai to Look into IssueA senior Trai official said that the matter would be examined.SpaceX, which is set to compete in the global satcom space with Jeff Bezos-led Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Bharti Group-backed OneWeb, has started offering the beta version of its satellite-based internet service on pre-orders in India for a fully refundable deposit of $99 (above Rs 7,000).81806288The company, which already offers such services in the US, Canada and UK, expects to start offering internet connectivity to Indian users in 2022 through satellites that it will launch into orbit.The company’s website says “orders would be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis as availability is limited”.OneWeb — co-owned by Bharti Global and the UK government — too plans to launch fast satellite broadband services in remote areas of India in the middle of 2022.According to the broadband forum, SpaceX-backed Starlink did not have either its own ground/earth stations in India, nor a satellite frequency authorisation from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Isro for providing such (beta) services. Accordingly, SpaceX’s Starlink service, it said, “appeared to be non-compliant to the existing guidelines for testing of a communication service,” which stipulated that while in the testing phase, no commercial launch can take place.At press time, SpaceX did not reply to ET’s queries.A maker of advanced rockets and spacecraft, SpaceX has developed the Starlink constellation of satellites to provide high-speed broadband globally.While the likes of OneWeb are aiming to provide broadband in deserts, mountains or forests where internet access is unreliable, expensive or unavailable, SpaceX’s beta programme is offering broadband connectivity even in urban areas, such as the Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway or Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, as per its website.

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