The Starlink controversy explained: What an Indian licence can and can’t control
Starlink has had its Indian licence since June 2025. As of late October, sixteen months on, it still can’t sell anyone a connection.
The latest hold-up, if Bloomberg’s June report is right, is the Home Ministry, which has been sitting on the final security clearance since Starlink dishes turned up in the Iran war, in a country where Starlink was never licensed. Starlink calls that report misleading and says it has built a deployment model tailored for India. In early October, Elon Musk lost patience in public and blamed Mukesh Ambani. The Narendra Modi government says it is simply following…
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