India’s satellite broadband licences are not commercial launch approvals

India’s three most prominent prospective satellite-broadband operators — Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications — are still not reported to be selling a nationwide consumer service in the country. A 20 August report by Mint, based on government officials and industry executives, said commercial launches remained stuck over security approvals and spectrum allocation. A parliamentary reply reported by NDTV Profit on 12 August gives the clearest official-status clue: the Department of Telecommunications has provisionally assigned spectrum so the companies can demonstrate compliance with technical and security requirements. That is a testing and compliance step, not a retail launch approval.

The bottleneck is easier to follow when the approvals are separated. A company can hold a telecom licence, have a satellite system or satellite capacity authorised for use in India, receive limited spectrum for demonstrations, and still be unable to activate a commercial service. Those are related decisions made under different parts of India’s telecom and space framework. Treating the first licence as a finished launch authorisation has obscured the current status: the outstanding steps concern the network’s use of radio spectrum and the security conditions applied before customer service begins.

What the licences do — and do not — confer

The Department of Telecommunications’ Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite, or GMPCS, service page lists Jio Satellite Communications, OneWeb India Communications and Starlink Satellite Communication as Unified Licence holders with GMPCS authorisation. The authorisation covers satellite-based mobile and data services, including internet service, at a national service-area level. But the same department’s page explicitly says a licence does not automatically confer the right to use spectrum: a separate, specific frequency assignment is required from the Wireless Planning and Coordination wing. In other words, a GMPCS licence establishes eligibility to provide the service; it does not by itself switch on the airwaves needed to operate it.

There is also a separate space-side decision. The Department of Telecommunications says a GMPCS licensee must obtain satellite capacity either from the Department of Space or NewSpace India Limited, or from a provider authorised by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, known as IN-SPACe. In November 2023, IN-SPACe said it had authorised Eutelsat OneWeb’s constellation to provision capacity in India. That permission concerns capacity from the satellite system; it is not the same thing as a telecom spectrum assignment or permission to market broadband to customers. The formal distinction matters because a satellite can be cleared to offer capacity while the customer-facing network remains subject to telecom conditions.

Why provisional spectrum is not commercial spectrum

The provisional assignments described in the August parliamentary reply are meant to let the three companies test their systems and show compliance with requirements prescribed by the government and security agencies, according to NDTV Profit’s account of the written answer. The report says the allocation does not permit a full commercial rollout. This fits the department’s published rule that spectrum requires a distinct assignment rather than following automatically from a licence. The language matters: an operator can transmit during an authorised demonstration without holding the final assignment needed for a broader commercial service. Neither the parliamentary account nor the Department of Telecommunications service page gives a date for those assignments to become commercial.

The security work is tied to how traffic is handled on the ground, not only to a satellite’s orbit. NDTV Profit reported that the framework includes keeping data generated in India within the country, routing traffic through approved gateways and enabling monitoring by authorised agencies. Mint reported that government concern has focused on whether operators could bypass Indian gateways and route internet traffic through facilities abroad. Mint also reported, citing an industry executive, that operators had completed security trials, modified systems and given compliance undertakings, but that there had been no Department of Telecommunications reference in recent months on approval status, further clarification or spectrum assignment. Those claims describe the reported state of the process, not a published final clearance.

A framework still being worked through

The wider policy machinery is still active. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India released a consultation paper on 8 April on a Satellite Communication Network authorisation framework and spectrum assignment for satellite-network providers; the consultation closed on 13 May. The regulator’s page shows submissions from Starlink, OneWeb India, Reliance Jio Infocomm and other companies and groups. A consultation is not a spectrum award, but it shows that the operating framework was still being tested with stakeholders in 2026. Separately, the department’s GMPCS page states that satellite service requires a separate Indian gateway for each authorised satellite system, a condition that places an operational requirement alongside the licence.

For prospective users, the practical answer is therefore more limited than announcements of licences suggest. Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite are not at the same point as an unlicensed applicant: all three have the GMPCS licensing step identified by the Department of Telecommunications, and OneWeb has a published IN-SPACe capacity authorisation. But the latest reporting and parliamentary account indicate that the commercial-service gate remains ahead of them. The next verifiable change would be a final spectrum assignment, a stated completion of the required security and technical conditions, or an operator’s announced customer launch — none of which the cited sources report as having occurred by 24 August.