Elon Musk's Starlink likely to get nod for India operations ‘in next few days’: Reports

Elon Musk's Starlink will soon be providing space-based broadband services in India, as the company is likely to receive approval from the Indian government ‘in the next few days,’ possibly early next week, reports have emerged.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had sought a clarification from Starlink regarding the shareholding pattern, which the latter provided, paving the way for the government's nod, the reports added.

“Starlink replied, and in the next few days or by the end of this month, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may issue a Letter of Intent (LoI),” ET Telecom quoted a source as saying.

The LoI could be issued by Wednesday, a Moneycontrol report said.

The DoT is preparing a note for approval by Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Communications, and Neeraj Mittal, the telecommunications department's secretary. After their nod, the department's Satellite Communications Wing (SCW) will give a go ahead to Musk's SpaceX, which operates Starlink, to function in the country.

Both Vaishnaw and Mittal are currently abroad. While the former is in Switzerland's Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), the latter is in the United States for the PanIIT 2024 event.

Starlink will be only the third company to offer space broadband services in India, after Mukesh Ambani's Jio Satellite Communications and Bharti Global-backed Eutelast OneWeb.