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Starlink is not yet allowed to offer its services in India. File | Photo credit: Reuters
Subscriber terminal for satellite Internet service Starlink, operated by SpaceX owned by Elon Muskis being listed for sale on a leading Indian business-to-business retail platform, which is a potential security risk. Starlinkwhich allows its customers to browse the Internet by connecting to a series of low-Earth orbit satellites, is not yet authorised to provide its services in India.
The listings, made by multiple sellers, were found on the IndiaMART platform, a popular platform for large vendors selling to businesses. It is unclear whether these terminals were genuine, and how the vendors would let customers pay Starlink’s monthly fees from India – the prices of the devices in a sample of listings ranged from ₹15,000 to ₹97,000. A SpaceX spokesperson did not respond to a query the hinduNeither did the Department of Telecommunications respond. The listed vendors did not respond to calls the hindu When contacted through call-forwarding facility operated by IndiaMART.
Some listings were removed from Indiamart shortly after the hindu The company reached out to the firm for comment, but others remain unanswered. “The content integrated and made available by the advertiser/supplier is automatically available without any intervention from IndiaMART through the self-edit tools available on the website,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed response.
“In case of any violation of terms and conditions by sellers, if brought to our notice through a court order or a notified agency, we will not hesitate to take action and disable the offending listings from our website.”
India has some of the most stringent restrictions in the world against non-approved telecommunications, a result of terrorist threats and a hostile neighborhood. Travelers are routinely warned not to bring satellite phones into India without written permission from the Department of Telecommunications.
Officials have long been concerned about the potential for unmonitored Internet communications by terrorists or infiltrators in border areas, leading to tight restrictions that sometimes bring others under national security scrutiny.
For instance, in 2022, Fergus MacLeod, a senior Saudi Aramco executive, was arrested and briefly jailed in Chamoli, Uttarakhand for turning in a satellite phone he had brought to India while on vacation.
Late last year, a fisherman from Kozhikode district was questioned for operating a satellite phone. He said the phone was given to him by his friend in Oman for emergencies. The phone calls he made to numbers in India were traced and he was called for questioning by the Mangaluru police.
In addition, India is one of the few countries in the world that also has restrictions on Wi-Fi hotspots, requiring each hotspot operator to verify the phone number for each device connecting to the Internet. Foreign travelers often need physical coupons issued at the airport to access hotspots there.
One of the main reasons why Starlink and OneWeb, its main rival, have not yet been issued authorisation is security clearance from the Home Ministry. The authorities have sought assurances that all satellite internet traffic can be intercepted through equipment physically located in India, and that terminals brought in from abroad be banned from operating in Indian territory.
The Home Ministry did not give any reaction to this. the hinduHe asked whether Starlink had given such assurances to the satisfaction of the government.
Satellite Internet in India is usually only available for commercial use or as a so-called backhaul in places such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, which have recently been connected to the Indian mainland via an undersea cable network.
Companies like Starlink promise increased bandwidth for remote users, as they have a large number of satellites in medium to low Earth orbit, providing connectivity to remote areas without the huge cost of building hundreds of kilometres of cable connectivity.
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