Two Indian commentary pieces published in the past three weeks reach opposite conclusions on whether Starlink, SpaceX’s low-Earth-orbit broadband service, should be allowed onto India’s communications network. South Asia Monitor argued on 8 November that New Delhi should keep the constellation out altogether. Scroll.in, in a piece by Shaan Ray, argued on 23 October that India should welcome Starlink but make sure the Indian state, not a company, holds the switch.
Key facts
- On 7 October a SpaceX executive told the India Mobile Congress that Starlink had constructed 20 gateway sites in India, according to South Asia Monitor.
- Hours later Elon Musk said unnamed “certain oligarchs” were blocking the service; Scroll.in reports he posted on X that this was a “crime against the people of India”.
- The Indian government called the claim “baseless and misconceived”, Scroll.in reports, saying all three licensed satcom operators are at broadly the same stage of approval.
- South Asia Monitor says Starlink holds a communications licence and space-regulator clearance but still lacks spectrum and final security clearance from the Home Ministry.
- Both pieces cite Starlink’s role in Ukraine since 2022 as the central precedent.
Why it matters
The two writers agree on the facts of the dispute and split on the remedy. Scroll.in frames the question as “not whether Starlink should come to India” but on whose terms, and says India should want satellite broadband soon for villages in the mountains, forested districts, the North East and island territories. South Asia Monitor says allowing a foreign private network to carry part of a state’s communications amounts to outsourcing part of its security.
The demand side is measurable. Scroll.in draws on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s subscription reports, which recorded nearly 1.09 billion internet subscriptions at the end of March — about 127 subscriptions per 100 people in cities against about 48 in rural India. It also cites the Internet and Mobile Association of India‘s estimate that roughly 38% of Indians, nearly 58 crore people, are not active internet users. That gap is the market the licensing fight is holding open.
The October 7 row
Scroll.in names the three licensed satellite internet operators in India as Starlink, Reliance Jio’s Jio Satcom and the Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, and says each is awaiting security clearance before spectrum is assigned. We have reported separately on why Starlink’s Indian launch remains stuck on security clearance and spectrum. South Asia Monitor describes the Indian government’s hesitation as “the right course of action” and says it should be adopted as policy.
What both pieces draw from Ukraine
Scroll.in says Starlink became the backbone of Ukraine’s battlefield communications in 2022. Scroll.in also cites Financial Times reporting from October that year that Ukrainian units lost service as they advanced into territory recaptured from Russia — part of a longer record of service limits imposed on Ukrainian units. Both pieces say Musk declined to enable coverage near Crimea for a naval drone operation around the same time. Scroll.in quotes him saying he did not want SpaceX to be “complicit in a major act of war”. South Asia Monitor attributes the same refusal to sanctions law and escalation risk. Scroll.in quotes Musk saying in March 2025 that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned it off”.
The 2026 reversal
South Asia Monitor says the position had flipped by 2026, with Russian forces fitting long-range strike drones with black-market terminals. After a drone struck a passenger train on 27 January, the piece says, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov worked with SpaceX on a “whitelist” that from 5 February switched off all unregistered terminals in Ukraine and the occupied areas. The measure worked, it says, but only because the person holding the switch agreed.
Terminals already inside India
Both pieces point to unlicensed equipment. South Asia Monitor says security forces in Manipur seized a dish and router labelled “RPF/PLA” in December 2024, and that a Starlink terminal was found a few weeks earlier on a ship carrying about 6,000 kg of methamphetamine off the Andaman Islands. Scroll.in dates both to the same month, describing a militant camp in Manipur and police in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands finding that drug smugglers had used the service to reach Indian waters.
Musk responded that Starlink satellite beams are turned off over India. Scroll.in calls that “reassuring – and revealing”, because it meant the decision rested with a company. South Asia Monitor says security sources cited by The Guardian report that Starlink does function in some areas close to the Myanmar border.
South Asia Monitor also argues that gateways on Indian soil protect confidentiality but not availability, because inter-satellite links, orbital operations and software updates are managed outside India. The same piece points to SpaceX’s military arm — an overlap we have examined in the Starlink–Starshield overlap — and to Russia’s 2022 warning that commercial satellites used in military operations could become legitimate targets.
Precedents and prescriptions
South Asia Monitor says China has effectively excluded foreign operators while building the Guowang and Qianfan constellations, and that South Korea admitted Starlink and OneWeb in May 2025 only on condition that foreign operators work through local licence holders and domestic firms such as Hanwha Systems, a shareholder in OneWeb. It points to the third phase of India’s Space-Based Surveillance programme — 52 satellites at ₹26,968 crore, 21 built by ISRO and 31 by private companies, due by the end of 2029 — as the model for financing a sovereign low-Earth-orbit constellation, and calls for withholding spectrum and clearance, keeping government and critical-infrastructure traffic on domestically controlled networks, and treating unlicensed terminals as a border-security matter.
Scroll.in wants transparent licensing and spectrum pricing on published timelines, room for public-sector players such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, start-ups and ISRO-built capacity, and oversight that is time-limited and reviewed by Parliament or the courts rather than a blanket kill-switch. It notes that India already suspends internet access from time to time to manage law and order in sensitive areas — the digital rights group Access Now counted 65 suspensions in 2025 — and argues any power over satellite networks should be used sparingly, for a limited time, and only where truly needed. It warns that “sovereign” must not become a euphemism for “concentrated”, since a switch held by two or three domestic conglomerates is still outside public accountability.
What it means for buyers in India
Nothing orderable, and no number. Neither commentary carries a consumer tariff, a hardware price or a service date for India, and no retail plan has been published. Two of the licence conditions Scroll.in describes — local manufacture of ground equipment and in-country gateways and data storage — are capital costs that eventually sit inside whatever tariff appears, so pricing cannot be read off Starlink’s rates in other markets. On South Asia Monitor’s recommended path there is no consumer launch to price at all.
What to watch next
The sequence is clearance, then spectrum, then service. The first decision point is Home Ministry security clearance for the three licensees; the second is how spectrum is assigned and priced, which is the step Scroll.in wants published in advance and South Asia Monitor wants withheld. The government has set no public date for either, and until the first moves, the second cannot. The slower marker is the surveillance constellation South Asia Monitor backs, whose satellites are not due until the end of 2029 — long enough that the connectivity gap in the TRAI and IAMAI numbers will still be there when it arrives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What security conditions must satellite internet operators meet in India?
According to Scroll.in, the Department of Telecommunications’ 2025 security conditions require operators to route Indian traffic through gateways inside India, keep user data in the country, allow lawful interception, be able to restrict service in specific areas during hostilities, and manufacture at least 20% of their ground equipment in India within five years. South Asia Monitor adds that operators must not copy, decrypt or mirror Indian data outside the country.
What is Starshield and how is it connected to Starlink?
South Asia Monitor describes Starshield as the military version of Starlink and, citing Reuters reporting from March 2024, says SpaceX has been building hundreds of imaging satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021. The commentary says the two systems share a manufacturer, launch vehicle and engineering base, which is why it treats a civil broadband licence as a military question.
What is a satellite gateway, and why does India want them on its own soil?
A gateway is the ground station that links satellites to the terrestrial internet backbone, so traffic to and from a user terminal passes through it. Routing Indian traffic through gateways located in India places that traffic under Indian jurisdiction, including interception orders and data-storage rules — which is why gateway location is written into the licence conditions rather than left to the operator.
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