Elon Musk has for the first time opened up on his frustration at still not being given the required permissions to start operations in India, with the SpaceX CEO claiming on social media that the company is being ‘blocked by certain oligarchs’.
Musk shared a post by an X account called DogeDesigner which gave pointers on why India needs Starlink.
Reposting the same, the world’s richest man in history said, “Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people. You can guess who they are …” adding, “This is a crime against the people of India!”
Starlink’s India plan
India ranks second in the world, only behind China, when it comes to the number of total internet users, and thus is a market Starlink is raring to enter.
The company began the process of its launch in India in November 2022. With the government approving up to 100% FDI in March 2024, it looked like a major hurdle was cleared for Starlink’s launch.
In May 2025, the Department of Telecommunications then issued a Letter of Intent to Starlink for its telecom licence, and in the next month the company received a Unified Licence with GMPCS authorisation, which also covered Commercial VSAT CUG and ISP-A.
Starlink was given provisional spectrum to run tests or trials in September 2025, and it began equipment/security testing and demonstrations October that year.
A Moneycontrol claimed in April this year that despite getting key security clearances from central agencies, the company is still awaiting final approval from the DoT.
On Wednesday, Starlink Business Operations’ Vice President Lauren Dreyer said at the India Mobile Congress 2026 that the company has developed security controls that are India-specific, and has also built 20 gateway sites in the country, adding that this was to keep “Indian users’ data within India.”
“We’ve built our Starlink operations specifically for India in recognition of Indian security requirements and other regulations, establishing controls at every layer for India, and keeping Indian user data within India,” ANI quoted her as saying.
India’s broadband sector
Reliance Jio Infocomm is the biggest internet provider in the country, with its broadband market share being 49.11% or approximately 523.4 million users, as per a TRAI press release published on 22nd April this year.
Jio is followed by , which controls 34.6% of the market share or approximately 368.8 million subscribers.
Together, Jio and Airtel have 83.71% of the market.
Vi comes at a distant third with 12.09% of market share.
When it comes to home or fixed broadband specifically, Jio has 14.23 million subscribers while Airtel has 10.71 million. BSNL is third with 4.51 million subsribers.