Starlink can keep internet service going in Ukraine during wartime. It can move hardware into the Amazon Rainforest. The company can overcome all sorts of challenges to bring its high-speed satellite internet connection all over the world, but red tape has kept it from going live in India for three years.

The Department of Telecommunications gave Starlink a GMPCS licence—that’s a Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite licence—in early June, but there’s one snag. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, has capped satellite spectrum licences at five years, with a possible two-year extension. Starlink wants 20. 

On top of that, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service still needs to clear a checklist of requirements: spectrum allocation timelines, clearance from IN-SPACe (the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre), testing windows. And then there’s spectrum assignment, approvals for ground stations, and terminal certifications. The list goes on.

That means Starlink is still many months away from rolling out commercial service in India.

Compare this with the company’s progress elsewhere. Starlink inked a distribution and integration partnership with Airtel Africa in May. It secured commercial licences in nine countries within weeks, with five more sets of approvals under process. It cleared that much ground in the time it took to get once licence in India.

The Ken’s head of editorial desk Sumit Chakraborty dived into the details in this week’s edition of Make India Competitive Again, as read by Deputy Editor Seetharaman G.

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