New licensing bother for Elon Musk-owned Starlink, right here’s what might delay the launch

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New licensing bother for Elon Musk-owned Starlink, right here’s what might delay the launch

Elon Musk-owned Starlink was beforehand reported to be on the verge of receiving approval to offer voice and information communication providers from house in India. Nonetheless, as per the most recent growth, its satcom providers within the nation might get delayed resulting from a licensing drawback.
As per a report by The Financial Occasions, the communications ministry has sought readability from the Division for Promotion of Business & Inside Commerce (DPIIT) earlier than giving approval for the beginning of providers.
Based on the overseas funding coverage set by DPIIT in 2020, a overseas investor should share full shareholding particulars to examine if there are any buyers from nations sharing a land border with India, like China.
Starlink refuses to offer shareholders’ particulars
Citing officers conscious of the matter, the publication stated that, Starlink has refused to disclose full shareholding particulars of Starlink-parent SpaceX, saying that it’s an unlisted entity and the US privateness legal guidelines bar it from making a full disclosure on this entrance.
“SpaceX has solely given a declaration that none of its buyers are from nations, which share a land border with India,” a senior official was quoted as saying.
“The corporate has requested that this declaration be accepted for granting approval for the GMPCS (international cellular private communication by satellite tv for pc providers) licence,” the official added.
DoT desires readability earlier than issuing licence
Based mostly on this, the Division of Telecommunications (DoT) desires to know whether or not approval needs to be given to Starlink based mostly on its declaration. It additionally sought readability on whether or not it ought to ask for full particulars from SpaceX earlier than issuing a world cellular private communication by satellite tv for pc providers (GMPCS) allow, officers stated.
“We wish to know if privateness legal guidelines of different nations could be a legitimate purpose for not sharing full shareholding particulars for getting a GMPCS licence in India,” one other official was quoted as saying.
A GMPCS licence is required for beginning satcom providers in India. Bharti Enterprises-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satcom enterprise have already got this allow.
Notably, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon has additionally utilized for a licence for its Mission Kuiper satellite tv for pc broadband enterprise. Each Mission Kuiper and Starlink will compete with the Indian firms on this house.