Elon Musk Starlink: Musk wants to launch Starlink in India. For this, his company has applied to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) so that they can set up an earth station. If Musk’s company gets the clearance, it will compete with the satcoms of OneWeb, Amazon and Reliance Jio already present in India. Musk’s company has not only filed an application for the Earth Station, but earlier the company has filed an application with the DOT to obtain a Global Mobile Personal Communications License (GMPCS) through satellite.
According to the report of Economics Times, currently the security investigation is going on by the Ministry of Home Affairs for Starlink’s GMPCS license and the company may get approval in the coming few months. Let us tell you, under India’s new space policy 2023, now foreign companies can also provide satellite services by setting up their infrastructure in India. For this, companies will have to take approval from IN-SPACe. The government has empowered IN-SPACe- to give approval to both government and private satcom companies.
GMPCS license will have to wait after approval
If Musk’s company gets approval from IN-SPACe, then the company will have to wait for spectrum allocation from DoT. Here, OneWeb has got all the approvals and is now waiting for the GMPCS license from DoT. Let us tell you, the satellite branch of Reliance Jio has already got GMPCS license from DoT.
Pre booking money had to be returned
Musk’s company Starlink has faced many problems in coming to India. Actually, the company had started taking money for internet service from people without license. Later, the company was asked by the DOT to return all the money as Starlink did not get the GMPCS license. Starlink was offering a refundable deposit of $99 (about Rs 7,350) in select cities of India such as Ahmedabad, Tadepalingam and Indore. Instead, it was claimed to give speed of 50Mbps to 150Mbps to the people.
