The data collected by Starlink’s satellite internet service in India will be kept inside the country, the Communications Minister of State, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, told Parliament on Thursday. He said that all user information and internet traffic from Indian users will stay within India and will not be sent or copied to servers outside the country.
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The government has set strict rules for Starlink to follow. These include:
- Setting up earth station gateways (important ground stations) in India.
- Making sure no internet traffic from India is sent through gateways located outside India.
- No copying or decoding of Indian data outside India.
- No mirroring of Indian user data to any foreign servers.
Starlink, a US-based company, is now the third satellite internet provider to get full permission to offer commercial satellite broadband services in India. The other two are Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio-SES JV. Starlink received its license last month.
The government agency IN-SPACe has allowed Starlink’s first-generation satellite network of 4,408 low-earth orbit satellites to provide high-speed internet in India.
The minister also mentioned that the satellite internet sector is new and is expected to create many jobs. These jobs will be in setting up, running, and maintaining the network and equipment.
Next, Starlink will work on getting spectrum allocation (frequency rights) and setting up ground stations in India.
Other big global satellite internet companies like Amazon Kuiper and Globalstar (Apple’s satellite partner) are also waiting for government approval to start services in India.
