Starlink to have 20 lakh users in India at most, says government

NEW DELHI : Elon Musk-led satellite communication services provider Starlink can have only 20 lakh connections in India due to constraints over spectrum capacity, minister of state for telecom Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said on Monday, playing down any immediate threat to local telecom operators.He said the company is likely to opt for a monthly consumer broadband plan that may cost around Rs 3,000, much higher than the plans offered by companies such as Jio, Airtel, and BSNL, but still aggressive from a satcom perspective. Speaking on the sidelines of a review meeting of BSNL here, he said, “Starlink can have only 20 lakh customers in India and offer up to 200 Mbps speed. That won’t affect telecom services.”However, considering that the company’s global customer footprint is to the tune of 50 lakh users, the Indian number will still be highly significant for the company if it hits peak.

Satcom services are expected to target rural and remote areas, where BSNL is known to have a significant presence.A govt official mentioned that the limit on Starlink connections will be due to its existing network capacity. Starlink has a lowearth orbit constellation of 4,408 satellites, which orbit the earth at a distance of about 540-570 km. It is expected to have a 600 Gbps throughput over India. The company’s authorisation is valid for five years or until constellation end.After receiving a satcom licence from DoT and satellite authorisation from INSPACe, Starlink will now begin to build ground infrastructure. It is planning to import equipment for which it will approach DoT for permissions.