Elon Musk’s Starlink has cleared the first step towards launching satellite internet services in India by securing a Letter of Intent from the Department of Telecommunications to beam its services from Indian skies. Starlink now has to secure a licence before being able to start operations.
Starlink is a satellite internet service developed by SpaceX, the American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded in 2002 by Musk. It provides high-speed, low-latency broadband internet worldwide, using satellite technology.
The firm has tied up with the top two telecom operators, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet to their customers in India.
Unlike conventional satellite services that rely on distant geostationary satellites, Starlink uses the world's largest low earth orbit or LEO constellation satellites (550 km above the earth). This constellation of LEO satellites, 7,000 now but eventually set to grow to over 40,000, and its mesh delivers broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming and video calls.
Built to endure extreme cold, heat, hail, heavy rain and even gale, Starlink can stay connected in harsh and severe weather conditions and in remote topography. It is particularly suited for rural and underserved areas where traditional internet modes like fibre or cable are unavailable or unreliable.
Starlink satellites communicate with ground stations and user terminals to deliver “broadband from the skies”. In doing so, Starlink requires an unobstructed, clear view of the sky and the user-end kit includes Starlink dish, WiFi router/power supply, cables and base.
Download speeds typically average between 50 to 150 Mbps, with occasional peaks at 200 Mbps. Most users experience speeds above 100 Mbps. Latency is generally between 20 and 60 milliseconds, which can support gaming and video calls.
Starlink has been on an expansion spree and its footprint is expanding across regions, including North America, Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia, South America and Africa. It has often proven vital during natural disasters and conflicts. A case in point is the strategic internet connectivity Starlink provides to war-ravaged Ukraine and its military.
As per an FICCI-EY report, the India's space economy is poised to touch a staggering US $44 billion by 2033 from US $8.4 billion in 2022.
In the months leading to Starlink inking separate agreements with Airtel and Jio, India's communications sector -- the second largest in the world -- had turned into a virtual battleground with telecom operators and satellite firms sparring over how satcom spectrum should be granted.
The high-stakes game saw rivals Jio and Airtel banding together to demand an auction for awarding spectrum for satellite services in India as they feared an administrative allocation would hand Musk airwaves at a price lower than what they had paid via past auctions to set the sprawling terrestrial networks.
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