Sunil Mittal Counters Musk, Says OneWeb Also Awaiting Regulatory Clearance
What Happened
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, rejected Elon Musk's claim that Starlink is being blocked in India by powerful business interests. Mittal said that Eutelsat OneWeb, backed by the Bharti Group, is also awaiting regulatory approvals before launching satellite services. While Starlink, OneWeb and Jio Satcom have received licences, all three still require security clearances and spectrum allocation before commercial operations can begin.
Key Takeaways
The Indian government says all three satellite communication companies are at broadly the same regulatory stage and that the approval process is fair and non-discriminatory, with security compliance mandatory for every operator.