Elon Musk says Starlink must be affordable to sell in India and asked why it still has no license there. Unnamed senior Indian government sources call his claim “blatantly false.” The two sides are describing the same license situation in different ways, and nobody has publicly reconciled them.
What Musk said
In a post on X, Musk said competition would benefit ordinary Indians. He said Mukesh Ambani’s profits would be lower but he is “not going out of business.” He said that if Starlink is too expensive in India, “no one will buy it.” He added that Starlink is licensed in more than 165 countries and has spent five years complying with Indian law. He gave no price for India.
What officials say
The unnamed sources say Starlink was the third company to get approvals for satellite communication services in India, and that all three are still waiting for licenses. They say Starlink’s key approvals were revived only about two years ago.
Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia words it differently. He has said that Jio Satellite Communications, the Bharti-backed OneWeb and Starlink have received licenses, but each must meet set requirements before it starts service. We cannot tell from what is public whether these are two ways of describing the same step or a real disagreement. Former junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a BJP leader, has said India is framing rules to protect its interests.
The timing
The remarks came days before Jio’s parent company launches India’s largest-ever IPO, which gives the exchange a commercial backdrop on top of the policy one.
Our take: the key question is whether Starlink is licensed or not, and an on-record minister and unnamed sources are not saying the same thing. We cannot say who is right. Price matters only after that is settled, and Musk named no price. For the earlier part of this fight, read Musk Calls Mukesh Ambani ‘Prime Minister’ in Starlink Row and our report on Tesla’s first 1,000 Model Y sales in India.
