Starlink’s entry into the Indian market remains pending as the satellite internet provider has yet to meet the country’s domestic infrastructure and security requirements, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
The official said the company must establish local infrastructure before it can begin offering services in India. The remarks follow Elon Musk’s allegations that Indian business interests were attempting to block Starlink’s entry to protect existing monopolies. The government has dismissed his criticism as “baseless and misconceived”, stating that all operators must meet the required security conditions before launching services.
“They will need to establish local ‘base stations’ for them to be allowed to offer services in India,” the official said.
India’s licensing framework requires satellite operators to establish gateways within the country and route Indian user traffic through these facilities. Gateways connect satellite networks with terrestrial communication systems. Operators must also comply with lawful interception and other security requirements.
Starlink received its Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licence in June 2025, followed by authorisation from the space regulator IN-SPACe in July 2025. However, these approvals do not exempt the company from fulfilling the security conditions required before commercial operations can begin.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued additional security instructions on 5 May 2025. These cover domestic network infrastructure, traffic routing, monitoring and user-terminal tracking.
Under the rules, operators must obtain security clearance for gateway and hub locations in India. Core network control, user-terminal monitoring, traffic routing, data centres and points of presence must be located within the country. Domain Name System (DNS) resolution must also take place in India.
Indian user traffic must pass through domestic gateways and cannot be routed through foreign gateways using inter-satellite links. The rules also prohibit overseas copying or mirroring of Indian user traffic.
Before launching services, providers must establish lawful interception and monitoring facilities, integrate them with government monitoring systems and demonstrate compliance to the DoT. Operators must also aim to achieve at least 20% indigenisation of their established ground segment within 5 years of launching commercial services.
Meanwhile, Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said his satellite broadband business, OneWeb, was also awaiting approvals despite having received earlier permissions well before Starlink.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Wednesday, Mittal said, “We are already waiting for approvals. I am significantly ahead. We got our approvals five years back, so I will be happy to get my approvals a few days before it [Starlink],” he said.
The government has previously clarified that all 3 licensed satellite operators—Starlink, Bharti-backed OneWeb and Jio-SES—are yet to launch commercial services and must fulfil the applicable security requirements. While the latest remarks specifically address Starlink’s domestic infrastructure compliance, the government has stated that these security obligations apply to all 3 operators.
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