Modi govt rubbishes claims by Elon Musk that ‘oligarchs’ are blocking Starlink in India: Details

In a major development on Thursday (8th October), the Modi government rubbished claims by American billionaire Elon Musk about oligarchs blocking his company, Starlink, a satellite internet service in India.

In a statement, it said, “The Government has put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services. Under this, telecom licences have been granted to three Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite services based on non-geosynchronous satellite orbit based satellite communications, as part of its commitment to enable provision of satellite communication services in India.”

“Under the terms and conditions of license, every such licensee is required to demonstrate compliance with security conditions. This is aimed at ensuring that services provided meet various security requirements to ensure safety of all users and their data. Security assessment as part of this process is currently under way in respect of all the three licensees,” the Modi government added.

“As and when this process is completed for a licensed entity, it may proceed to the next step of seeking assignment of spectrum. At present, all the three entities are at broadly the same regulatory stage. As such, the suggestion that the framework or its application is unfair or discriminatory is baseless and misconceived,” it concluded.

The Background of the Controversy

A day earlier on Wednesday (7th October), Elon Musk had alleged that some oligarchs were running a monopoly in India when it came to internet services.

“Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people. You can guess who they are…This is a crime against the people of India!”, he tweeted.

Although he did not name names, it is clear that the American billionaire had Reliance in mind when he put out the ill-informed tweet.

A few hours later, Musk tweeted, “Starlink in India would enable high-speed, affordable Internet connectivity for those who can’t afford current prices or who don’t have a connection at all!”

Earlier in December 2024, security forces recovered Starlink equipment from Kuki terrorists in Manipur. Similarly, criminals in Myanmar employ the Starlink satellite systems to enable international crimes, such as scamming people worldwide, according to signals intelligence.

Written by OpIndia Staff
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