Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s offer to pre-sell its Starlink satellite internet service in India is being scrutinized by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to know if it flouts any of the country’s existing telecom and technology laws.
Musk's SpaceX has offered pre-orders for the beta version of its Starlink internet services in India for a “fully refundable deposit” of $99 (Rs 7,000).
Following this, the DoT is trying to assess if the beta service offer violates any provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, India’s Satcom policy, 2000, and the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, reported The Economic Times citing a senior DoT official.
According to the official, the offer does not “immediately appear” to violate Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. “as SpaceX is yet to establish, maintain or work a telegraph in the Indian jurisdiction”.
Under the Act, the term ‘telegraph’ means any appliance, instrument, material, or apparatus used or capable of use for transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images, and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, visual or other electromagnetic emissions, Radio waves or Hertzian waves, galvanic, electric or magnetic means.
However, later if it is found to be violating existing telecom regulations, not in the consumer interest, and also has national security implications, then an action may be taken against it, including sending a notice at first, the official told the publication.
This comes soon after the Broadband India Forum asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to block Elon Musk’s SpaceX Technologies from pre-selling the beta version of its Starlink satellite internet services in India.
TV Ramachandran, president of the industry body, which represents Amazon, Facebook, Google, Hughes, and Microsoft, claimed that SpaceX does not have the permissions to offer such services in India.
Earlier in March, Starlink started accepting pre-orders for Starlink for $99 (around Rs 7,200). The Starlink kit includes a wifi router, power supply, cables, and mounting tripod, the company said in its website's FAQ section.
On February 22, Musk tweeted that the speed will "double to ~300Mb/s & latency will drop to ~20ms later this year".
SpaceX had begun public beta testing of Starlink in October 2020, and Musk has said he is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) of Starlink. "Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will IPO," Musk tweeted on February 9 in response to a Twitter user.