Starlink Plans 20 Gateways Across India: Report

SUMMARY

Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture Starlink is reportedly preparing to conduct spectrum tests from its Navi Mumbai terminals

Citing sources from the Department of Telecommunications, NDTV Profit reported that the company plans to set up 20 earth stations or gateways across Noida, Chennai, and Navi Mumbai

The gateway infrastructure will need at least 50,000 user terminals, which are expected to be imported from Texas, Los Angeles, and Seattle

Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture Starlink is reportedly preparing to conduct spectrum tests from its Navi Mumbai terminals.

Citing sources from the Department of Telecommunications, NDTV Profit reported that the company plans to set up 20 earth stations or gateways across Noida, Chennai, and Navi Mumbai. Of these, three sites are already under construction.

The gateway infrastructure will need at least 50,000 user terminals, which are expected to be imported from Texas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Notably, Starlink received provisional spectrum clearance on August 12 to build ground infrastructure and carry out security compliance tests. However, DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are yet to resolve key issues around spectrum pricing.

The company holds a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licence and has also secured authorisations from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). In July, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia officially confirmed that Starlink had been granted a unified licence to launch satellite services in India.

Alongside Starlink, Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio SES are also waiting for spectrum allocation to start their satellite communication services.

Meanwhile, Starlink has partnered with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to use Aadhaar-based authentication for customer verification. With its current capacity, the company can onboard up to 20 Lakh users in India. Its user terminal is likely to cost around INR 33,000, with a monthly subscription fee of INR 3,000.

In July, IN-SPACe granted Starlink Satellite Communications a five-year authorisation to operate its Gen1 constellation of 4,408 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites over India, offering up to 600 Gbps throughput. This marked the final regulatory clearance after approvals from DoT and TRAI.

In August, the government further mandated that all user traffic and data generated in India be stored locally. Security conditions require that no Indian traffic be routed through gateways outside the country and that no data be copied or mirrored abroad.