‘Baseless and misconceived’: Centre rebuts Musk’s ‘blocked entry’ charge on Starlink India

Elon Musk has accused unnamed rivals of blocking SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband network in India, a move he claimed was aimed at maintaining monopolistic control over the country's telecommunications market. SpaceX has been awaiting approval from India's government to offer Starlink service, a network that would compete with those controlled by two of India's largest private telecom operators, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel.

These companies control an estimated 910 million broadband subscribers, or more than 80% of the country's market. Musk's comments come after SpaceX signed deals with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel last year to offer Starlink services in India. However, India's government has effectively frozen final approvals for Starlink's commercial launch due to security concerns.

The security clearance process is being handled by India's home ministry, and Starlink has not yet received the necessary clearance or spectrum to operate commercially. Starlink's vice president of business operations, Lauren Dreyer, stated that the company has worked with Indian regulators for five years and built its network to meet the country's security requirements, with user data kept within India.

Despite this, Musk's criticism represents a significant shift from SpaceX's previous cooperation with Indian telecom giants.