Piyush Goyal Meets Starlink Execs Ahead Of India Entry Plans

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal met senior executives of Elon Musk-led satellite communication (satcom) operator Starlink yesterday. 

In a post on social media platform X, Goyal said that the two sides discussed the company’s plans for future investments in India. The delegation comprised Starlink’s vice-president of business operations Chad Gibbs and senior director of global licensing and market activation Ryan Goodnight. 

“Met a delegation from @Starlink, comprising of Vice President Chad Gibbs & Senior Director, Ryan Goodnight. Discussions covered Starlink’s cutting-edge technology platform, their existing partnerships & future investment plans in India,” said Goyal in a post on X. 

The meeting comes at a time when the Elon Musk-led company is making a headway to enter the Indian market. As per reports, Starlink’s application for a satcom licence is in the final stages of approval. 

This follows telecom giants Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio signing pacts with Musk’s SpaceX to offer Starlink’s broadband internet services to customers in India. 

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea is also said to have initiated talks with Starlink and Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon Kuiper to offer satcom services to its customers.

The development comes a month after reports surfaced that the Centre had directed Starlink to comply with a slew of new mandates, including establishing a control centre in the country and allowing law enforcement agencies to intercept calls through official channels. 

Nevertheless, last month, it was reported that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was considering allotting satcom spectrum for a period of five years to assess initial market adoption. This is a fourth of Musk’s demand for a 20-year permit for Starlink’s satellite broadband spectrum. 

Notably, both Airtel and Jio previously opposed Starlink’s entry into the Indian market and pitched for an administrative allocation of spectrum instead of auction. 

In October last year, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that satcom spectrum will be allocated administratively but will come at a cost. He added that the cost of spectrum and the formula of allocation will be decided by the TRAI.