NEW DELHI: India on Thursday hit back at claims by tech billionaire Elon Musk that unnamed “oligarchs” had blocked his Starlink entry to protect their monopolies, with officials saying the government’s regulations were “fair”.
The potential launch of Starlink, which provides high-speed internet access to remote locations via low Earth orbit satellites, has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging from predatory pricing to spectrum allocation.
In March 2025, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms said it had signed a deal with Musk’s SpaceX to offer Starlink’s satellite internet service to its customers.
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But it has yet to launch and, on Wednesday, Musk said in a post on X that it was being “blocked”.
“Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people,” Musk wrote.
“You can guess who they are… This is a crime against the people of India!”
India’s Ministry of Communications said on Thursday that the government had a “fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services”.
It made no mention of Musk, but referred only to a post “being circulated in social media regarding the fairness of India’s regulatory framework for satellite communication services”.
It added that telecom licences had been granted to satellite services “as part of its commitment to enable provision of satellite communication services in India”, without specifying the names of the companies.
“Security assessment as part of this process is currently under way in respect of all the three licensees,” it said.
“As and when this process is completed for a licensed entity, it may proceed to the next step”.
