By Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s Starlink has received a key licence from India’s telecoms ministry, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday, clearing a major hurdle for the satellite provider and taking it closer to launching commercial operations in India.
Starlink is the third company to get a licence from India’s Department of Telecommunications, which has approved similar applications by Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio to provide services in the country.
Starlink and the Department of Telecommunications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Starlink has been waiting since 2022 for licences to operate commercially in India but delays have occurred due to reasons including national security concerns. Amazon’s Kuiper is still waiting for its India licence.
In recent months, Musk’s company has also clashed with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s entity Jio over how the country should grant spectrum for satellite services. India’s government has sided with Musk that spectrum should be assigned and not auctioned.
(Reporting by Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra, additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru, Editing by Jane Merrman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
