President and COO of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, on Tuesday called on Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, a meeting that comes just days after Starlink secured licence from the Telecom Department.
Scindia said discussions centred around various opportunities for collaboration in satellite communications to power Digital India.
“Had a productive meeting with Ms. @Gwynne_Shotwell, President & COO of @SpaceX, on India’s next frontier in connectivity. We delved into opportunities for collaboration in satellite communications to power Digital India’s soaring ambitions and empower every citizen across the country,” Scindia wrote.
Satellite technologies are not just relevant, they’re transformative, the minister noted.
“Ms. Shotwell appreciated the license granted to @Starlink, calling it a great start to the journey,” Scindia said.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s Starlink received a licence from the telecom department for providing satellite internet services in India, a key milestone that will take it closer towards launching commercial operations in the country.
Starlink is the third company after Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications to get a licence from the Department of Telecommunications to provide satellite internet services in the country. A fourth applicant, Amazon’s Kuiper is still waiting for approvals.
Starlink is a satellite internet service developed by SpaceX — the American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded in 2002 by the world’s richest man Musk. It provides high-speed, low-latency broadband internet worldwide using satellite technology and is aptly described by some as broadband beamed from the skies.
Unlike conventional satellite services that rely on distant geostationary satellites, Starlink utilises the world’s largest low Earth orbit or LEO constellation (550 km above Earth).
This constellation of LEO satellites (7,000 now but eventually set to grow to over 40,000) and its mesh delivers broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, and video calls.
Starlink, which had been vying for an India licence for some time now, recently signed pacts with Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, which together control more than 70% of the country’s telecom market, to bring the US satellite internet giant’s services to India.
