It took Elon Musk’s Starlink three years to get a commercial licence in India. Three years. For a company that covers Ukraine in wartime and delivers hardware to the middle of the Amazon, the hold-up wasn’t technology. It was red tape. 

A few days ago, the telecom department finally handed Starlink a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (or GMPCS) licence—one that allows the company to offer satellite-based internet services in the country. Starlink’s response was basically: “Cool, now can we have spectrum?”

Not yet. Because getting a licence is not equal to launch readiness.

Trai, India’s telecom regulator, has capped the duration of satellite spectrum licences at five years, with a possible two-year extension. Starlink had asked for 20. So instead of certainty, what it’s got now is a running stopwatch.

Spectrum assignment, ground‑station approvals, security vetting, terminal certifications—all are still pending. India needs clear steps: spectrum allocation timelines, IN-SPACe clearance, testing windows. Only after all those boxes are ticked can Starlink actually sell dishes and connect users. Expect months more before commercial services begin, despite telco tie‑ups. 

That hasn’t stopped India’s telecom operators from trying to get ahead of the curve. Or at least look like they are.

Last week, Vodafone Idea signed a deal with AST SpaceMobile to bring direct-to-device satellite connectivity to India. The announcement was bold. The details, less so. No integration timeline, no capex plan, no pricing model. Just a broad agreement that sounded more like a placeholder than a rollout strategy. In India’s satcom space, this is becoming a genre: deals that check the innovation box without opening the service tap.

Still, Starlink is moving.

It plans to roll out services in India by August. The pricing is… optimistic. A dish that costs Rs 33,000 upfront, plus Rs 3,000–4,200 per month. That’s about 8–12X what most Indian households pay for unlimited fibre broadband, which typically starts around Rs 399 per month. India’s average revenue per user (Arpu) for broadband is Rs 220. So unless you live in a Himalayan village or your house is surrounded by tigers, it’s a tough sell.

Starlink is offering this in a market with over 955 million broadband users already—95% of them on mobile data—and nearly 700,000 km of government-laid optical fibre under Bharatnet. And it’s not like this is static: India adds about 25 million internet users every year, almost entirely on mobile.