On Wednesday Musk accused unnamed “oligarchs” of blocking Starlink’s launch in India to maintain what he called their “monopolistic chokehold” on the country, without identifying them or offering evidence, and called the alleged blocking a “crime against the people of India.” Hours later, India’s Ministry of Communications responded that Starlink and two other licensed satellite operators are all at “broadly the same regulatory stage,” and that all three are undergoing security assessments that must be completed before they can seek spectrum. The ministry called the suggestion of discrimination “baseless and misconceived.”
Starlink has spent over five years trying to enter India but has yet to begin commercial services despite securing key regulatory approvals and partnering with telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel last year. It appointed former Payoneer executive Prabhakar Jayakumar to lead its India operations in December and says it has more than 20 gateway sites and hundreds of antennas on the ground in India.
The fight is not just about access. Starlink previously clashed with India’s biggest telcos over spectrum allocation, pushing for administrative assignment while Reliance Jio argued for an auction; India ultimately sided with Starlink’s preferred approach. Jio and Airtel are meanwhile pursuing their own satellite services even as they agreed to distribute Starlink: Jio is working with SES and Airtel backs Eutelsat OneWeb, one of the other licensed operators at the same regulatory stage as Starlink.