Reacting to the Centre’s rebuttal that India’s framework for satellite services is non-discriminatory and that companies must demonstrate compliance, trillionaire Elon Musk has claimed Starlink has spent five years complying with every Indian law and asked why it has still not got a licence.
In a statement issued on Thursday morning, the Ministry of Communications said the claim was baseless. “A post is being circulated on social media regarding the fairness of India’s regulatory framework for satellite communication services and suggesting that it is being applied in a discriminatory manner. The ministry pointed out that telecom licences have been granted to three Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite services – Starlink, Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms.
The Government has put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services,” it said. READ | “Fair Policy”: India Rejects Elon Musk’s “Starlink Stalled” Claim The ministry said that once this is done, the companies can ask for spectrum to be assigned.
“At present, all 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 asserted.
Musk took to X again on Thursday and asked why Starlink has not received the licence, claiming that it had complied with “every single law and requirement” of the government of India.
