Obey The Government Of India, Starlink Apply For Commercial Internet License To Operate Immediately

Starlink, the satellite internet division of rocket company SpaceX, is seeking a license in India. (photo: doc. starlink)

JAKARTA - Starlink, the satellite internet division of billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX, will apply for a commercial license in India early next year to provide broadband and other services.

"We expect to have applied for a commercial license on or before January 31, 2022 (unless we run into major hurdles)," Sanjay Bhargava, Country Director for Starlink SpaceX in India said in a LinkedIn post.

If the company can launch its service in April, it aims to have 200,000 Starlink devices in India by December 2022, he said in a presentation posted by Bhargava. The company previously said it expects 80% of these devices to be in rural areas.

Starlink is one of a growing number of companies launching small satellites as part of a low-Earth orbit network to provide low-latency broadband internet service worldwide. They usually have a particular focus on remote areas that are difficult to reach by terrestrial internet infrastructure.

Competitors include Amazon.com Kuiper and OneWeb which are jointly owned by the UK government and India's Bharti Enterprises.

While Starlink itself has received more than 5,000 pre-orders for its devices in India. Though Starlink hasn't started any service there yet.

Even so, the Indian government, last week, appealed to the public not to subscribe to Starlink because it does not have a license to operate in the country. They also warned Starlink, and ordered it to refrain from accepting orders and providing services, before the permit was issued.

Starlink itself has stopped taking pre-orders for its devices, according to its website, citing "pending regulatory approval".

Last month the company registered a local unit, Starlink Satellite Communications Private Ltd, paving the way for starting a business in the country.

This low latency broadband internet service business is indeed rife in the world. However, until now there has been no big company interested in operating in Indonesia. Even though the growth of internet users in Indonesia in early 2021 reached 202.6 million people.

This number increased by 15.5 percent or 27 million people when compared to January 2020. The total population of Indonesia itself is currently 274.9 million people. This means that internet penetration in Indonesia in early 2021 will reach 73.7 percent.