Billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX which owns satellite internet services provider Starlink has applied to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for a global mobile personal communication by satellite services (GMPCS) to launch the Starlink internet services from space, the media has reported.
“SpaceX has applied for the licence, now the government will decide on the license following the due procedure laid by the department,” an official was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
SpaceX provides internet connectivity globally with Starlink constellation. SpaceX is the world's leading provider of launch services and is the first private firm to have delivered astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). It is the only company to complete all civilian crew missions to orbit.
It should be noted that India's top telecom operators Bharti Airtel's OneWeb and Reliance Jio Infocomm's satellite arm have already got a license and Musk's SpaceX is the third firm to apply for a license to operate in the country.
Musk’s Starlink has recently debuted in Japan, making it the first Asian country to get SpaceX’s satellite internet service. Starlink will tap into demand from mountainous areas and remote islands suffering from spotty or hard-to-access internet services, said a previous report by Nikkei Asia.
To recall, Starlink was asked by the Indian government late last year to stop pre-orders after the Centre’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) warned citizens to not register for it as the company is yet to acquire a license. Earlier this year, the government asked Starlink to refund all its pre-orders until it received licences to operate in the country.
SpaceX began satellite launches in November 2019 and opened its $99 per month beta programme for select customers around a year later. Starlink registered its business in India in November last year and was in the process to apply for licenses in the country, as per Sanjay Bhargava, the India director for the company.