India Rejects Musk Claim That Rivals Are Blocking Starlink
India's Ministry of Communications said on Thursday, Oct 8, 2026, that its satellite internet approval process is fair and non-discriminatory, rejecting Elon Musk's claim that "certain oligarchs" are blocking Starlink in India. Al Jazeera
Musk wrote in an X post on Wednesday that Starlink was being blocked so unnamed individuals could "maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people." He described the alleged blocking as a "crime against the people of India." He did not name any individual or company.
The Ministry said the suggestion that its satellite framework or how it is applied is unfair or discriminatory is "baseless and misconceived." It said three different entities were at broadly the same regulatory stage and all were undergoing security assessments, or government safety reviews. It did not name the three entities in the material cited.
India's telecom sector is dominated by two carriers: Reliance Jio, owned by Mukesh Ambani, and Bharti Airtel, owned by Sunil Mittal. Both have moved into satellite internet, which delivers connection from orbiting satellites instead of ground towers. Both have secured early approvals to launch, but are still awaiting final clearances.
Starlink has waited since 2022 for licences to operate commercially in India. In 2025, Starlink received a key licence from the Communications Ministry to launch as well as a go-ahead from India's space agency. In that same year, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel agreed to distribute Starlink systems alongside their own services. That arrangement paired a prospective competitor with the incumbents Musk is now criticizing.
Security clearance is the approval still pending. Indian authorities said Starlink devices were found in a drug seizure operation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in an army operation in Manipur state. On December 18, 2024, Musk said Starlink satellite internet is inactive in India after Indian authorities seized two Starlink devices. Reuters
Since then the process has moved in steps without resulting in commercial service. On July 9, 2025, India's space regulator granted Starlink its final regulatory approval to launch commercial operations in India. India's UIDAI, which runs the Aadhaar national ID system, onboarded Starlink for Aadhaar-based customer verification, under which Starlink will use Aadhaar Authentication for customer verification. Press Information Bureau Starlink later reapplied to the space regulator for approval to deploy its satellite constellation, or coordinated fleet of satellites, including direct-to-device capability that lets regular phones link directly to satellites. Reuters
The broader context here is a licensing regime trying to reconcile market entry, domestic incumbency and signals intelligence risk, or the chance that satellite signals could be misused for spying. New Delhi treats satellite authorizations as a sequence of telecom licensing, space authorization and security vetting, not a single clearance. No operator has cleared that bar. That explains why early approvals, distribution agreements and even a 2025 regulatory nod have not translated into service, and why the Ministry frames the delay as uniform treatment rather than discrimination.
Looking at what this means for operators and policymakers, the next test is narrow and technical. Completion of security assessments, resolution of unauthorized terminal use, and authorization of constellation configuration including direct-to-device will determine timelines more than public exchanges over market structure. For spectrum managers and investors watching India, the question is whether parallel processing of three applicants produces simultaneous market entry or a staggered rollout shaped by compliance findings.
