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According to a source, US-based Starlink, the satellite internet branch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is actively establishing the groundwork for its commercial launch in India. The company intends to set up nine gateway earth stations around the nation. With this action, a major step has been taken in providing Indian consumers and businesses with high-speed, low-latency satellite communication (satcom) services.

The Economic Times claims that the suggested gateway sites include carefully chosen large urban and regional centers, such as Mumbai, Noida, Chandigarh, Kolkata, and Lucknow, among others. In order to transmit internet data between Starlink’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and the terrestrial fiber optic networks, these earth stations are essential ground-based infrastructure. Starlink hopes to provide the best possible coverage, redundancy, and low-latency performance over the vast Indian terrain by putting in place a dense network of nine gateways.

According to reports, Starlink has submitted an application for 600 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bandwidth across India utilizing its constellation of first-generation satellites. The necessary spectrum has been temporarily allotted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to enable Starlink to carry out requisite security-related compliance demonstrations. The corporation is now only allowed to import 100 terminals and test fixed satellite services during this highly controlled first testing period.

Because it considers satcom to be a sensitive and vital industry, the government has enforced strict security regulations. Important requirements for compliance include:

Data Localization: All information produced at the security compliance stage has to be kept on Indian soil.

Personnel Restriction: Until foreign technical specialists get final security clearances from the Union Home Affairs Ministry, only Indian citizens are presently allowed to run the gateway stations.

Frequent Reporting: Starlink must provide the DoT and security agencies with biweekly reports that include the user name, address, and geo-coordinates of every installed terminal.

With this infrastructure drive and compliance testing, Starlink is now in the race to establish commercial services alongside major rivals like Jio Satellite (a Reliance Jio initiative) and Eutelsat OneWeb, which is supported by Bharti.

The final commercial launch date, which is expected to occur as early as 2026, is still pending the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) settling on the spectrum pricing and allocation mechanism for satcom services, even though Starlink has obtained the necessary permits. Starlink is positioned to become a game-changing competitor in India’s digital connection thanks to its strategy, which primarily targets the neglected retail consumer sector.