India tells Starlink to stop providing satellite internet without permission

SpaceX is always warmly welcomed as it grows Starlink. Reuters reports The Indian government has ordered Starlink to immediately stop “resorting / providing” online services in the country until it has obtained a work permit. The SpaceX subsidiary registered as a business in India on November 1 and started importing, but has no license to run the project. Officials have also banned potential customers from registering for now.

We asked SpaceX for an explanation, although at first it refused Reuters‘question. The company has not set a definite date for Starlink’s India debut, though it is purpose for 200,000 connections in the country by the end of 2022. There were more than 5,000 orders from 1 November.

Starlink is currently available in 21 countries on most beta tests. However, SpaceX has a very strong incentive to ship to India soon. India has a large rural population (over 898 million, according to Information about the World Bank). It is a large satellite Broadband market, and the Starlink team expects that 80 per cent of equipment sold in India by the end of 2022 will serve rural areas. However, it is clear that the Indian government does not share this interest.