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Communications

SpaceX Gets Approval To Sell Starlink In India (behindtheblack.com) 10

schwit1 shares a report from Behind The Black: Almost immediately after India's government issued this week new tightened regulations for allowing private satellite constellations to sell their services in India, it also apparently completed negotiations with SpaceX to allow it to sell Starlink in India based on these rules. Business Today reports: "According to sources, the DoT [Department of Transportation] granted the LoI [Letter of Intent] after Starlink accepted 29 strict security conditions, including requirements for real-time terminal tracking, mandatory local data processing, legal interception capabilities, and localisation of at least 20% of its ground segment infrastructure within the first few years of operation.

Starlink's nod came amid heightened national security sensitivities, coinciding with India's pre-dawn Operation Sindoor strikes on terror camps across the border in response to the Pahalgam massacre. However, DoT officials clarified that the decision to approve Starlink was independent of these military developments." At the moment SpaceX's chief competitors, OneWeb and Amazon's Kuiper constellation, have not yet obtained the same permissions. This allows SpaceX to grab a large portion of the market share in India before either of these other companies.

SpaceX Gets Approval To Sell Starlink In India

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  • why would a government approve this apart from bribes ?

    this was in my onion a bad choice they have plenty of talent and technically literate why would you choose russian or american solutions...

       

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Mascot ( 120795 )

      I don't pay all that much attention to these things, but from what I've read they wouldn't be the first country to sign a Starlink contract in the apparent hope that being nice to Elon will make the trade war easier on them. If so, yes, bribery.

      • by Mascot ( 120795 )

        Curious, I have no idea why someone would label that as trolling. I'm referencing events that have been in the news recently. Oh well.

    • so... Starlink will price their service around $5 (400inr)/month to compete. Compared to $125/month in the States.

  • by hyades1 ( 1149581 ) on Friday May 09, 2025 @09:16AM (#65363811)

    Has everybody already forgotten how Musk directly threatened to cut off Ukraine's access to Starlink, thus partially blinding their armed forces trying to repel Russian invaders? Why would any government rely on a satellite/data network controlled by a petulant child-man who might turn it off at any time in a fit of pique?

    • Has everybody already forgotten how Musk directly threatened to cut off Ukraine's access to Starlink, thus partially blinding their armed forces trying to repel Russian invaders?

      That's not what happened.

      • https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]

        U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine's critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite internet system, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

        That's a handy internet connection you have there. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it.

        So maybe not Elmo directly but still classic mafia tactics.

/earth: file system full.

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