The Indian government is mulling whether to relax safety norms for issuing ‘satellite communication licences’. In this case, a total of 30 to 40 licenses can be given. Various reports are claiming so.
As a result, Elon Musk’s company Starlink and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon Kuiper – the two parties – are believed to have a slightly wider path to obtaining their respective licenses. Who can provide satcom (satellite communication) services in India in coming days.
The reason for thinking so is that the Indian government’s collaborative and joint activities with Musk’s company have recently increased. One of which – a few days ago, the GSAT-20 satellite made by the Indian Space Research Organization – ISRO went into space on the rocket of Musk’s company. The rocket was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.
Reports that have surfaced on the issue of ‘satellite communication licences’ claim that security policies and regulations may be relaxed to keep pace with technological changes.
According to sources, a meeting has been held on November 29 to discuss this in detail. Officials of Law and Order and Telecommunications Departments were present in that meeting.
Incidentally, Starlink and Amazon, both parties are equally interested in providing telecommunication services in India. But, both the applications submitted by them did not get clearance. Sources claim that India’s security regulations are creating obstacles in this regard.
Musk’s company’s statement on this is that the rules of the Indian government should be in line with international standards. It is to be noted that Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had opened his mouth about this matter last month.
When asked about this, he said that Starlink has not yet received the security clearances. They will be licensed to provide services in India as soon as they are able to obtain that studentship as per the laws of India.
So far this license is jointly held by Bharti Enterprises-backed Eutelsat OnWeb and Reliance Jio. They are licensed to provide this service via satellite in Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, the fierce competition between domestic companies and international companies to decide who will be in charge of providing these services in India in the coming days, well, the fight is on!
Indian companies have petitioned the country’s telecom regulator, for serving urban or retail customers, to make the process of allocating satellite spectrum through auctions only.
However, the government is reluctant to pay attention to it. According to them, the concerned organization will be selected to provide this service at the administrative level and the organization will have to pay a financial price for it.