India tells public to shun Starlink until it gets licence

The reality is far more prosaic than many people seem to believe.<p>Starlink has been reported to be taking &quot;pre-orders&quot; for the service at $99 in India; without having a license to operate [1][2]. This might seem like peanuts to the HN crowd, and the move to do pre-orders is completely in line with the &quot;move fast&quot; ethos of SV startups, but $99 is a non-trivial amount of money in rural India.<p>IMO the Government is right to at least warn people that they might not get the service promised, even if they do end up getting their money back. Also, in case Starlink decides to take the dynamic and innovative step of just keeping the money, it is unclear what recourse these prospective customers will have.<p>----------------------------------------<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;economictimes.indiatimes.com&#x2F;industry&#x2F;telecom&#x2F;telecom-news&#x2F;telecom-ngo-alleges-musks-starlink-cheating-consumers-in-india-by-accepting-pre-order-deposits-without-a-licence&#x2F;articleshow&#x2F;86678167.cms" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;economictimes.indiatimes.com&#x2F;industry&#x2F;telecom&#x2F;teleco...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pcmag.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;india-spacex-needs-a-license-to-offer-starlink-pre-orders" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pcmag.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;india-spacex-needs-a-license-to-o...</a>

Because heaven forbid the masses have Internet access that their government doesn&#x27;t have the means to censor or surveil.

India is known to be really difficult to satcom providers. F.ex Inmarsat just recently got a limited license to operate their Ka-band service in India, but I think only on aircrafts and Indian flagged maritime vessels. Russia is also a bit difficult for requiring all terminals in their territory to register with the government, but at least fishing vessels can continue to use their satcom while in Russia as long as they register the terminal.<p>Just saying, it can take a really long time to acquire a satcom license in India. I think Starlink I Ku-band, so might be easier than Ka-band license.

Lots of comments dunking on Indian Government as grandstanding or too corrupt and quoting extreme examples to justify this position. Sorry folks, not every other non Western or non Western-allied country is a banana republic. India does suffer from endemic corruption but that doesn’t mean that every decision is tainted by that for fucks sake. It’s entirely reasonable for the Government to ensure that a foreign corporation is going to offer a legitimate service, and has proper mechanisms to address grievances, before it’s allowed to take money from it’s citizens.

So, SpaceX started taking pre-orders for Starlink in India before they had license to operate Starlink in India.<p>I understand India being upset, but a pre-order is not the same as service. SpaceX is not going to offer service in India until its licenses are approved. But what&#x27;s the harm in taking refundable pre-orders?

Starlink cost is 499$ for equipment and 99$ per month? That is way too high for broadband prices in India. Fibre internet of 100 Mbps is about 18$. Mobile 4G is even cheaper.

India shakes fist at the sky

India&#x27;s decision might sound silly--especially given how many people on Hacker News trust Elon Musk--but the Indian government is just worried in general about all types of businesses that could be selling expensive vaporware to poor people.<p>I don&#x27;t agree with the Indian government&#x27;s decision regarding Starlink, but I also understand where the underlying logic originated from.

China just outright banned all residential satellite dishes in response to Starlink. Gotta keep the people under control after all.

Is starlink uncensorable? India has a high number of internet shutdowns and maybe doesn&#x27;t want to lose control of that.

Streisand effect? Of course, if the goal is payoffs to the government, raising awareness of Starlink might be in the government&#x27;s interest.

define what value and relevance a license has for such?<p>How easy will it be to shootdown starlink devices?<p>I am sure it will be easy for someone to build an app that tracks your current GPS and the Starlink cause-ways and provide the telemetry data to shoot these things down with ease...<p>Does Starlink have a ChaosMonkey for such scenarios built in?<p>--<p>Imagine a world war - or even a war btwn 2 supers... killing starlink is going to be A#1 target.