Starlink Must Comply to Secure Licence for Satellite Broadband Services: Communications Minister

New Delhi, India - Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday emphasized that Elon Musk's Starlink will have to meet all conditions to obtain the necessary licence to provide satellite broadband services in the country.

"They (Starlink) need to comply with all the conditionalities. We have to look at it from a security perspective, making sure that all security concerns are addressed," Scindia told reporters during a press conference.

"We'll be happy to give permission once they do that," he added.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is currently finalizing its recommendations for the satcom spectrum pricing and other terms. Currently, satellite Internet providers such as Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio-SES have secured licences to provide satellite internet broadband services.

Scindia also mentioned that Starlink needs to adhere to specific format requirements, emphasizing that a cooperation and compliance on data interception by intelligence agencies is a pre-condition before obtaining the licence.

He clarified that the department of telecommunications (DoT) will evaluate these conditions and not the ministry level. When questioned about supporting Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) in paying bank debts, Scindia stated that bank debts should be settled between banks and the organization.

Regarding MTNL's total debt of Rs 32,100 crore, including Rs 8,026 crore owed to various banks, Scindia mentioned that the government will back the company on sovereign guarantee debts.

The Communications Minister also discussed the recent discussions with Trai chairman regarding cyber security, highlighting their efforts to disconnect over 250 million fraudulent mobile connections using Sanchar Saathi and block 229,000 mobile handsets involved in cybercrime/financial frauds.