Centre plans to relax satcom security norms as Musk-India ties build: Report

The government is considering to relax security conditions for giving satellite communication licenses which number between 30 and 40, making it more likely for Elon Musk’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Kuiper to offer satcom services in India.
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This comes amid signs of increasing cooperation between Musk and the Indian government with Musk’s SpaceX recently launching the GSAT-20, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) communications satellite, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US, according to an Economic Times report.
Some of the security conditions may be relaxed to make them more relevant with changing technology, the report read.
The discussion on the matter by law enforcement and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officers happened at a meeting on November 29, 2024.
At the moment, the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) license applied by both Starlink and Amazon are yet to be cleared due to compliance issues with the same security clauses.
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Starlink at that time had told the government that the rules should be aligned with standard lobal regulations. Then last month, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Starlink was in the process of applying for the security clearances.
Currently only the Bharti Enterprises-backed Eutelsat Oneweb and Reliance Jio’s joint venture with Luxembourg-based satellite provider SES have gotten approval so far.
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This also comes amid a fierce battle between the international players and domestic ones who have already bought airwaves by paying billions of dollars through auctions. The Indian players are urging the telecom regulator to permit only auctioned satellite spectrum for giving services to urban or ‘retail’ consumers.
However, the government has said it will be allocated administratively, or without auctions, but for a charge.