SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s satellite arm Starlink is aiming to launch its broadband service in India from December 2022.
Starlink Country director for India Sanjay Bhargava said that pre-orders have crossed the 5,000 mark in India while stating that the aim is to have 2,00,000 terminals active by the end of 2022.
For the pre-order, Starlink is charging Rs 7,350 or $99 for the beta version of its broadband, where the company will offer a speed varying between 50 and 150 megabits per second (Mbps).
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Starlink, in a pre-order note, stated that the company's presence is in many countries and the more pre-orders it gets from India, it will be easier for it to get government approval.
“We are optimistic that we will get approval for a pilot program or pan-India approval in the next few months,” said Bhargava.
"Our stretch target is to have 2,00,000 terminals active in India in December 2022. Actual numbers may be much lower than that or even zero if we do not get government approval but it is very unlikely that we will exceed 2,00,000,” Bhargava added.
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He further explained that the approval process is complex. He said that the ball is in Starlink’s court to make a move as there is no approvals application pending with the Indian government.
"The government approval process is complex. So far there is no application pending with the government, so the ball is in our court to apply for consideration which we are working on. Our approach will be to get pilot approval quickly if pan India approval will take longer. We are optimistic that we will get approval for a pilot program or pan India approval in the next few months," Bhargava said.
The note further mentioned that the "global pre-orders have crossed 5,00,000 and around 1,00,000 terminals are active so there's a big global backlog."
