Starlink is not yet authorised to provide its services in India. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Customer terminals for the satellite internet service Starlink, served by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, are being listed for sale on a prominent Indian business-to-business retail platform, in a potential security risk. Starlink, which 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, by multiple sellers, were found on the platform IndiaMART, which is a popular platform for large sellers selling to businesses. It is unclear whether these terminals were genuine, and how the sellers would allow customers to pay Starlink’s monthly fees from India — prices for the equipment ranged from ₹15,000 to ₹97,000 in a sample of listings. A spokesperson for SpaceX did not respond to a query by The Hindu, nor did the Department of Telecommunications. Listed sellers did not return calls from The Hindu when reached through an IndiaMART facilitated call-forwarding facility. 

Some listings were removed from IndiaMART shortly after The Hindu reached out to the firm for comments, but others remain still. “The content integrated and made available by the advertiser/supplier is on its own through a self-edit tool available on the Website without any intervention of Indiamart,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed response.

“In case of any breach of terms and conditions by sellers, we will not hesitate to take action and disable the impugned listing from our website, if brought to our notice through a court order or notified agency.”

India has among the most stringent prohibitions in the world against unapproved telecommunications, a result of terrorist threats and a hostile neighborhood. Travellers are routinely warned to not bring satellite phones into India without written approval from the Department of Telecommunications.

Officials have long worried of the possibilities of unmonitored internet communications by terrorists or infiltrators in border areas, leading to blanket restrictions that have sometimes ensnared others in national security investigations.

For instance, in 2022, Fergus MacLeod, a senior executive at Saudi Aramco, was arrested and briefly held in jail for switching on a satellite phone he brought to India in Chamoli, Uttarakhand while on holiday.

Late last year, a fisherman from Kozhikode district was questioned for operating a satellite phone that he said was given to him by a friend in Oman for emergencies when in Oman. Phone calls he made to numbers in India were flagged, and Mangaluru police called him for questioning. 

What’s more, India remains one of the few countries in the world with restrictions even on WiFi hotspots, requiring every hotspot operator to validate a phone number for each device connecting to the internet. Foreign travellers often need a physical coupon issued to them at the airport to access hotspots there. 

One of the main reasons that Starlink and OneWeb, its main competitor, have not yet been issued authorisations, is security clearances from the Ministry of Home Affairs. 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 are restricted from functioning in Indian territory.

The Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to The Hindu’s queries on whether Starlink has provided such assurances to the government’s satisfaction. 

Satellite internet in India is typically only offered for business use, or as so-called backhaul in places such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, which have only recently been connected through an undersea cable network to the Indian mainland.

Firms such as Starlink promise increased bandwidth for remote users, as they have a large number of satellites in medium-to-low earth orbit, offering connectivity in remote areas without the humongous costs of building hundreds of kilometres of cable connectivity to enable this. 

The Starlink listings, by multiple sellers, were found on the platform IndiaMART, which is a popular platform for large sellers selling to businesses. Photo: dir.indiamart.com

Customer terminals for the satellite internet service Starlink, served by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, are being listed for sale on a prominent Indian business-to-business retail platform, in a potential security risk. Starlink, which 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, by multiple sellers, were found on the platform IndiaMART, which is a popular platform for large sellers selling to businesses. It is unclear whether these terminals were genuine, and how the sellers would allow customers to pay Starlink’s monthly fees from India — prices for the equipment ranged from ₹15,000 to ₹97,000 in a sample of listings. A spokesperson for SpaceX did not respond to a query by The Hindu, nor did the Department of Telecommunications. Listed sellers did not return calls from The Hindu when reached through an IndiaMART facilitated call-forwarding facility. 

Some listings were removed from IndiaMART shortly after The Hindu reached out to the firm for comments, but others remain still. “The content integrated and made available by the advertiser/supplier is on its own through a self-edit tool available on the Website without any intervention of Indiamart,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed response.

“In case of any breach of terms and conditions by sellers, we will not hesitate to take action and disable the impugned listing from our website, if brought to our notice through a court order or notified agency.”

India has among the most stringent prohibitions in the world against unapproved telecommunications, a result of terrorist threats and a hostile neighborhood. Travellers are routinely warned to not bring satellite phones into India without written approval from the Department of Telecommunications.

Officials have long worried of the possibilities of unmonitored internet communications by terrorists or infiltrators in border areas, leading to blanket restrictions that have sometimes ensnared others in national security investigations.

For instance, in 2022, Fergus MacLeod, a senior executive at Saudi Aramco, was arrested and briefly held in jail for switching on a satellite phone he brought to India in Chamoli, Uttarakhand while on holiday.

Late last year, a fisherman from Kozhikode district was questioned for operating a satellite phone that he said was given to him by a friend in Oman for emergencies when at sea. Phone calls he made to numbers in India were flagged, and Mangaluru police called him for questioning. 

What’s more, India remains one of the few countries in the world with restrictions even on WiFi hotspots, requiring every hotspot operator to validate a phone number for each device connecting to the internet. Foreign travellers often need a physical coupon issued to them at the airport to access hotspots there. 

One of the main reasons that Starlink and OneWeb, its main competitor, have not yet been issued authorisations, is security clearances from the Ministry of Home Affairs. 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 are restricted from functioning in Indian territory.

The Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to The Hindu’s queries on whether Starlink has provided such assurances to the government’s satisfaction. 

Satellite internet in India is typically only offered for business use, or as so-called backhaul in places such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, which have only recently been connected through an undersea cable network to the Indian mainland.

Firms such as Starlink promise increased bandwidth for remote users, as they have a large number of satellites in medium-to-low earth orbit, offering connectivity in remote areas without the humongous costs of building hundreds of kilometres of cable connectivity to enable this. 

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla, arrives to launch SpaceX’s Starlink internet service in Indonesia at a sub district community health center in Denpasar, Bali, May 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Elon Musk traveled to Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Sunday to launch Starlink satellite internet service in the world’s largest archipelago nation.

Wearing a green Batik shirt, Mr. Musk was greeted with a garland of flower petals at a community health clinic in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, where he launched the Starlink service alongside Indonesian ministers.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands sprawled across three time zones with a population of more than 270 million, has been trying for years to secure deals with Mr. Musk’s Tesla on battery investment and for Mr. Musk’s SpaceX to provide fast internet for the country’s remote regions.

During the ceremony, Mr. Musk took a speed test of the Starlink internet service with several health workers in Indonesia’s remote regions, including in Aru, one of Indonesia’s unserved and outermost islands in Maluku province.

“This can make it really a lifesaver for remote medical clinics, and I think it could be a possibility for education as well,” Mr. Musk told reporters.

“If you can access the internet and then you can learn anything and you can also sell your business services worldwide. So, I think it’s going to be incredibly beneficial,” he said.

He also signed an agreement on enhancing connectivity in the country’s health and education sectors. Details about the agreement between the Indonesian government and Mr. Musk’s SpaceX, the aerospace company that operates Starlink services, were not provided.

Launching the service at a health clinic aligns with Starlink’s broader mission of providing affordable access to high-speed internet services, particularly in underserved and remote regions, said Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

“Our remote regions need Starlink to expand high-speed internet services, especially to help with problems in the health, education and maritime sectors,” Mr. Pandjaitan, a close ally of Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, told reporters. He held separate talks with Mr. Musk on Sunday.

Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said earlier that local internet providers, which rely on base transceiver stations to transmit signals, are unable to reach outer islands because they have limited coverage. Starlink’s satellites, which remain in low orbit, will help them deliver faster internet with nationwide coverage.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said of the more than 10,000 clinics across the country, there are still around 2,700 without internet access.

“The internet can open up better access to health services as communication between regions is said to be easier, so that reporting from health service facilities can be done in real time or up to date,” he said.

During his first in-person visit to Bali, Mr. Musk is also scheduled to participate in the 10th World Water Forum, which seeks to address global water and sanitation challenges.

Mr. Musk spoke in 2022 at the B-20 business forum ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies that took place in Bali. He joined the conference by video link weeks after completing his heavily scrutinized takeover of Twitter.

Mr. Musk’s visit comes just weeks after Apple CEO Tim Cook met Widodo on April 17 and said the company would “look at” manufacturing in Indonesia. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella visited on April 30 and said the company would invest $1.7 billion over the next four years in new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Indonesia.

Indonesia under Widodo has promoted development of the digital technology and information sectors, aiming to achieve the government’s Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision. The country hopes to become one of the world’s top five economies with a GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after it won independence from Dutch colonizers.