Cleared for orbit, stuck on the tarmac—Starlink’s long India wait

Starlink’s India entry faces delays over security clearance, FDI approval, and spectrum rules, even as the satellite broadband market gathers momentum

Elon Musk-backed satellite broadband operator Starlink has been chasing an India launch since it first announced its intent to enter the country in November 2022. Three and a half years on, the SpaceX subsidiary remains stuck on the runway. According to industry insiders, the wait may yet stretch further: the company is still to receive clearance from security agencies, and the last set of regulatory approvals, sign-off on its foreign direct investment (FDI) proposal, is also pending.

How far Starlink has got
On paper, Starlink has cleared two of the four regulatory layers required to offer satellite communication services in India.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a letter of intent in May 2025 and granted Starlink a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite Services (GMPCS) licence in June 2025. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) followed in July 2025 with its own clearance. The provisional spectrum for trials was allocated in September 2025, and the company has been conducting security trials since then.

Distribution agreements are in place too. In March 2025, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel signed separate pacts with SpaceX to retail Starlink kits and connectivity in India, giving the US operator instant access to the country’s two largest telecom storefronts. The company is also tying up with state and central government entities, the most recent being a partnership with the Unique Identification Authority of India to enable Aadhaar-based customer verification.

Yet none of this has translated into a switch-on date.

Hurdle One—Security clearance still in limbo
Although DoT and IN-SPACe approvals are in hand, security clearance is still pending. The conditions Starlink has to meet are exacting: separate security clearance for each satellite gateway, localisation of facilities for lawful interception, and complete compliance with Indian security norms, a tricky requirement for a satellite constellation that, by its very design, operates without regard for political boundaries.

Starlink has been used in conflict zones outside of any host-government framework. The most recent example is Iran, where Starlink terminals have reportedly been smuggled in to enable activists to access the internet during an internet shutdown imposed by the regime since January. Starlink had earlier offered its service free of charge in Ukraine when the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022. Under its Indian licence terms, the company is required to provide call data records to security agencies on demand and to switch off services in any area on government direction during a crisis. Whether Starlink will comply with such switch-off requests once it begins operating in India remains, in the view of the Bengaluru-based Takshashila Institution, an open question in a note dated 12 April 2026. The note also flags the risk of the company leveraging sensitive user data.

Hurdle Two—The FDI logjam
The second major hold-up is the FDI proposal. India permits up to 100 percent foreign investment in satellite services, with automatic approval for stakes up to 74 percent; anything beyond that requires explicit government clearance. Because SpaceX owns Starlink wholly, the proposal sits squarely in review territory.

Officials have raised concerns about the company’s structure. The application must comply with the mandatory ownership-disclosure norms issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), and is currently pending with the Department of Space (DoS), which has to authorise the use of foreign satellites to link to India and the setting up of an Indian entity for that purpose. Queries sent to DoT and DoS did not elicit a response at the time of publication.

External geopolitics is not making things easier. Industry insiders point to the public falling-out between Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump as a factor that has reduced India’s incentive to grant Starlink any procedural leeway. The expectation, instead, is that the company will have to comply strictly with whatever terms and conditions the Indian government imposes.

Hurdle Three—Spectrum and pricing
Even when security and FDI clearances are in place, the spectrum question will need to be settled before Starlink can offer commercial services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its May 2025 recommendations, identified the spectrum bands and proposed a five-year allotment, extendable by two years. Starlink has lobbied for a longer 20-year term, while domestic players Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have argued for a three- to five-year term to gauge market stability before locking in.

A more fundamental snag is the legal framework itself. Under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, satellite spectrum is to be allocated administratively, but the rules giving effect to this are yet to be notified, including key sections of the Act dealing with the new authorisation framework for telecom networks (Section 3) and spectrum assignment via auction or administrative route (Section 4). Legal experts note that the government can, in principle, proceed with allocation under existing regulations and migrate to the new regime once rules are notified, but that adds another layer of uncertainty.

The pricing of administratively allocated satellite spectrum is the third sticking point. TRAI has suggested a charge of 4 percent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), with a possible subsidy on user terminals; DoT favours a 5 percent charge with a 1 percent incentive for connectivity in far-flung or remote areas, and no terminal subsidy. The DoT view is broadly settled at the 5 percent mark with the remote-area discount. The final call rests with the Digital Communications Commission, the top decision-making body within the communications ministry.

Telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia indicated to reporters in February 2026 that the government was working to ensure that the rollout of satellite services would not suffer from a lack of regulatory clarity on spectrum assignment and pricing.

Not just Starlink
The wait is not Starlink’s alone. Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and the Reliance Industries-backed Jio-SES joint venture, Orbit Connect India, have also secured the required licences and permits, but are awaiting security clearances at much the same pace. For all three players, the same spectrum-and-pricing logjam stands in the way of a commercial launch.

Big business, eventually
Satellite broadband holds clear strategic value for India. It is widely seen as the most cost-effective route to bridge connectivity gaps in remote, hilly, and border regions where laying fiber is uneconomical, addressing the digital divide for millions of underserved users.

The near-term revenue pool is modest. Industry estimates put the satcom revenue pie at ₹15,000–18,000 crore, a fraction of the ₹3.7 trillion generated by terrestrial mobile services in FY25. Looking further out, however, a 2025 EY-FICCI report on India’s space economy projects the satellite communications segment to reach $14.8 billion by 2033. The report argues that satellite constellations can accelerate broadband penetration, deepen financial inclusion and reinforce digital infrastructure, supporting flagship initiatives such as Digital India and BharatNet.

The longer-term competitive picture could be even more disruptive. A March 2026 Deloitte report projects that some satellite operators will pursue direct competition with terrestrial providers in developing markets, offering services at substantially lower price points and aiming to capture underserved segments through aggressive pricing and simplified offerings. The eventual entry of Starlink, particularly in Direct-to-Device formats that beam high-speed connectivity straight to mobile phones without an intervening internet connection, could catalyse exactly that scenario.

Is Starlink ready to switch on?
The world’s largest satellite communications provider, with more than 10,000 low Earth orbit satellites in service, is reportedly planning earth-station gateways at nearly a dozen locations across India, including Mumbai. It has also applied for permission to import equipment to build out this infrastructure.

Pricing for Indian consumers and enterprises has not been announced. Globally, the service requires a terminal or dish, costing $250–380 depending on geography, on top of which sits a recurring monthly or annual fee for dedicated speeds of up to 100 Gbps. By comparison, incumbents such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel offer broadband plans bundled with over-the-top app subscriptions at ₹1,000–4,000 per month, with far lower hardware costs and downstream speeds capped at around 1 Gbps.

On the ground, Starlink has reportedly leased a large office in New Delhi and is actively hiring for finance, operations, and compliance roles in Bengaluru, according to social-media job postings. Queries sent to Starlink did not elicit a response at the time of publication.

Three near-term signals will shape Starlink’s India trajectory, the outcome of its FDI proposal pending with the Department of Space, the conclusion of the security-clearance process around its gateway and lawful-interception architecture, and the final notification of spectrum-allocation and pricing rules under the Telecommunications Act, 2023.

Until those pieces fall into place, Starlink’s Indian foray will remain a matter of when, not if, but the “when” is increasingly looking further away than the company, its partners, and its prospective customers had hoped.