“SpaceX now has a 100% owned subsidiary in India. The name is SSCPL – Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited and the incorporation date is Nov 1, 2021. Happy Birthday, SSCPL. We can now start applying for licenses, open bank accounts etc,” this is the announcement of Starlink launch in India made by Sanjay Bhargava (Starlink Country Director India at SpaceX).
Starlink plans to provide Internet services (ultra rapid broad band connection) in the Asian country using advanced satellites in a low orbit).
Musk baked company eyes not only great urban areas, like Delhi but instead sees a good market in rural communities with just slow Internet connections by narrow band width or no connection at all.
The plan is to achieve the 200,000 Starlinks by December, 2022 with 160,000 in rural districts.
In a first phase (pilot) the objective is establishing 20 Starlinks in Delhi schools and 80 Starlinks in schools in 1 rural district close to Delhi.
In phase 2 Starlink will choose 12 Rural Districts as Labs (in multiple domains). They will be picked 3 Rural Districts each in North, South, East and West India.
To date there are two companies already offering ultra rapid low latency broad band Internet connections through low earth satellites: Telesat’s Oneweb (owned by UK Government and Bharti Group and active in india since September 2021) and Kuiper (the initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities baked by Amazon, available in India in June 2021).
Starlink is still in the process of getting approvals to ship Starlinks to India, but already working with Niti Aayog to identify the 12 districts where Starlinks will be shipped in the 1st phase after the proof of concept.
