Elon Musk-owned SpaceX announced the incorporation of its wholly owned Indian subsidiary. Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited, on November 1.

The company has already planned on setting up 2 lakh broadband terminals for its satellite internet service in India by December 2022.

The proposed pilot of the satellite internet service will first be focused on rural areas. 12 underprivileged areas in the country will be home to 80 percent of the 2 lakh terminals that are going to be part of the project.

Also Read: Elon Musk’s Starlink global coverage coming soon - all you need to know

Satellite internet is a broadband internet service that uses radio waves to transmit the internet from an ISP hub to your satellite receiver dish which is attached with a modem to provide internet access.

SpaceX uses lasers instead of radio waves to transmit data. The radio waves are reflected in the receiver by geosynchronous low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that are in a fixed position in the sky. The data is transmitted to the satellite. Satellite internet works mostly like regular internet, except that cables becomes redundant in transmitting data over long distances.

For a country like India, which has vast areas of poorly developed infrastructure, satellite internet can quickly prove to be a boon for internet companies that don’t have to spend massively in improving ground infrastructure. These companies can rely on their fleet of LEO satellites to provide internet access in remote areas.

For Starlink, however, the biggest hurdle is to get the government’s approval.

“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,” said Sanjay Bhargava, Starlink India’s country director.

“Our approach will be to get pilot approval quickly if Pan India approval will take long. We are optimistic that we will get approval for a pilot program or Pan India approval in the next few months,” Bhargava added.

The company is currently charging $99 (Rs 7,350) per connection for pre-booking its services and a $499 one-time equipment fee, and will soon be competing with the likes of Airtel (OneWeb) and Tata (Nelco), Amazon (Project Kuiper), and Hughes in India. The company claims that Starlink will be able to provide internet speeds of 50 to 150 Mbps.

Also Read - What is satellite internet and why it could be the next big thing

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Nov 2, 2021 3:44 PM IST