India is planning to relax security requirements for a satcom licence, in what could be a big win for Elon Musk Starlink, said people with knowledge of the matter. This would include allowing remote management of satellite networks and doing away with the condition of latitude-longitude binding of a fixed satellite terminal, they said.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has discussed and shared proposed changes with the four major players — Bharti-backed Eutelsat Oneweb, Reliance Jio-SES, Starlink and Amazon Kuiper — for providing their inputs in a week, officials told ET.
“While Starlink was positive about the changes, and said it was ready to comply and share its inputs soon, others sought more time to revert,” said one of them. Amazon asked for time until the middle of January, said the people cited.
Starlink, Eutelsat Oneweb, Amazon and Jio-SES didn’t respond to queries, and neither did the telecom department.
The move comes amid signs of increasing cooperation between India and Musk, who has gained importance as self-styled “first buddy’’ and key ally of US President-elect Donald Trump.
India's latest move is likely to pave the way for the grant of Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licences to Starlink and Amazon, the applications of which are pending owing to non-compliance on such security clauses.
Eutelsat Oneweb and Jio’s joint venture with Luxembourg-based satellite provider SES, which have got the GMPCS licences, had given unequivocal undertakings that they would comply with all extant security requirements and have set up systems that meet all the conditions.
Neither company had asked for any review of the current security requirements. However, officials said the government is of the view that the norms need to be more closely aligned with global standards and the proposed changes will offer better ease of doing business conditions to companies.
Concerns
Some experts, however, warned that the proposed changes will have serious security implications. For instance, if latitude-longitude binding is scrapped, any person can buy a fixed terminal at one place and use it at another, with the company having little control over this. A terminal bought in Delhi could conceivably be used in Jammu & Kashmir and other border areas by non-state actors, said one industry executive.
Under current norms, a terminal will only work at the site of installation and stop doing so if moved without permission. The operator will have to be informed and address verification has to be completed before a shift can take place.
Similarly, remote management of networks will allow global players to potentially control operations from outside India. DoT, in its proposed changes, has not said what services can be remotely accessed. Current rules do not allow remote management owing to security risks. In specific cases, when remote access is needed by companies, they have to get prior permission and inform DoT.
The department also proposes to relax the international border monitoring mandate, officials said. Currently, a 10-km band along the international border has to be monitored by satcom firms, but under the proposed rules, this check will be on a “best-effort” basis, one of them said.
Further, “there are proposed relaxations around utilisation of India-made components in satellite networks and easier deep-packet inspection norms,” the person said. This allows security agencies to analyse data packets in case they need to, the official explained.
Tough Rivalry
There’s a fierce battle playing out between Starlink and Amazon Kuiper on one side, and private telecom operators Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, on the other, over the mode of allocation and pricing of spectrum to support broadband-from-space services.
India’s top telcos are seeking equal treatment of telecom and satcom services. The telcos, which had bought airwaves through auctions paying billions of dollars, have sought a level playing field and urged the telecom regulator to permit only auctioned satellite spectrum for satcom companies to service urban or ‘retail’ consumers.
The government, though, has made it clear that satcom spectrum will be allocated administratively, or without auctions, but for a charge. The government has specifically denied that the allotment mechanism was decided to favour Starlink.
At stake is a share of the country’s space economy that has the potential to hit $44 billion by 2033, and account for about 8% of the global share, from 2% now, according to India’s space sector regulator IN-SPACe.
Starlink has over 6,000 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites already working. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to have an initial satellite constellation comprising 3,236 LEO satellites, with deployment commencing early 2025 and commercial service starting later in the year.
This information was reproduced by Starlink Team of EDUP from Economic Times.
