I. Introduction
Picture a government school in a Himalayan village that has never featured in a telecom coverage map. Until recently, "connectivity" there meant a teacher walking to the one spot on a ridge where a faint 2G bar might appear long enough to send a WhatsApp message. Now imagine the same school with a small white dish fixed to the roof, quietly talking to a constellation of satellites moving above the Earth. Inside the classroom, students join a live session with a teacher in Mumbai.
For the children, this feels like a simple upgrade from "no network" to "good network". From a legal perspective, it represents the emergence of a completely new layer in India's communications ecosystem. The internet connection reaching that school is no longer just travelling through towers and fibre. It is moving through low Earth orbit, under a framework that combines telecom law, space policy and foreign investment rules.
India has consciously opened this frontier. The Indian Space Policy, 2023 (ISP 2023) expressly allows "non-government entities" to undertake end-to-end activities in the space sector, including establishing and operating satellites, ground-based assets and related services such as space-based communication.1 At the same time, the Telecommunications Act, 2023, moves India away from colonial-era telegraph legislation to a single, authorisation-based >framework under which anyone providing telecom services or operating telecom networks or equipment must seek permission from the Central Government.2
Into this evolving framework steps Starlink, backed by SpaceX, alongside domestic incumbents Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Their emerging arrangements are live case studies on two fronts: how India regulates foreign participation in its telecom sector, and how a genuine space-law industry is forming at the intersection of satellite infrastructure and everyday connectivity.
II. India's "new age" satellite telecom market
India's space story is no longer limited to ISRO launches and national missions. ISP 2023 and subsequent guidance from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN- SPACe) explicitly envisage non-government entities as "independent players" capable of carrying out end-to-end space activities, from building and operating satellites to running ground infrastructure and offering communication services within and outside India.3 This reflects a strategic ambition: to move India's share of the global space economy, currently estimated at under 2%, towards double digits over the coming decade.4
On the investment side, India has moved from a cautious regime to one of conditional openness. In 2021, the Government revised its FDI policy to allow 100% foreign investment in the telecom services sector under the automatic route, including all telecom services and infrastructure providers, subject to security conditions.5 In 2024, the FDI regime for the space sector was similarly liberalised: up to 100% FDI is now permitted, with up to 74% under the automatic route for satellite manufacturing and operations, satellite data products, ground segments and user segments; higher stakes require government approval.6 7
This twin liberalisation means that a foreign satellite operator is no longer confined to selling capacity from a distance. It may participate in India's telecom and space markets, invest directly in local entities, and form joint ventures with Indian operators. But it must do so within a dense web of Licenses, authorisations and security requirements that are designed to keep critical infrastructure under effective Indian regulatory control.
III. Starlink, Jio and Airtel: constructing the orbital layer
Starlink's route into India has been gradual and increasingly structured. After an early setback in 2021, when the government asked it to stop taking pre-bookings from Indian customers without proper Licenses, the company re-entered via a more conventional path. In June 2025, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) granted Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited – an Indian company based in New Delhi – a Unified License with authorisations for Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS), commercial VSAT and ISP Category A services.8 This made Starlink the third GMPCS licensee in India, alongside Jio and OneWeb-linked entities.9
Licensing, however, only addresses the telecom side. On the space side, Starlink also needed India's dedicated space regulator to sign off. In 2025, IN-SPACe granted Starlink time-bound approval to operate its low Earth orbit constellation over India, effectively recognising Starlink's operations as "national space activities" carried out under India's jurisdiction and supervision, alongside other operators such as Eutelsat, OneWeb and the Jio–SES partnership.10
Jio has not waited for Starlink to define the market. Through a 51:49 joint venture with Luxembourg-based SES, announced in 2022, Jio Platforms has created a vehicle to deliver satellite broadband and enterprise connectivity, with access to up to 100 Gbps of SES capacity and a commitment to build gateway infrastructure in India.¹³ ¹⁴ In 2023, Reliance Jio publicly demonstrated JioSpaceFiber, marketed as India's first satellite-based gigabit broadband service, at the India Mobile Congress. The service is specifically pitched at "previously inaccessible geographies" across the country at "highly affordable prices".11
Airtel's position is layered. Through Bharti's stake in OneWeb (now merged with Eutelsat), its ecosystem has long been connected to low-Earth-orbit broadband ambitions in India.12 In early 2025, Bharti Airtel announced an agreement with SpaceX to distribute Starlink services in India, framing the deal as a way to use Starlink's satellite capacity to complement Airtel's existing 4G and 5G networks in remote areas.13 Reuters has reported that both Airtel and Jio have struck distribution arrangements with Starlink, enabling its terminals and connectivity to be sold through their nationwide retail channels, albeit subject to final regulatory approvals.14
The result is a regulatory triangle. Starlink controls the constellation and much of the space segment. Jio and Airtel bring spectrum holdings, ground infrastructure, and a deep retail and enterprise footprint. The Indian state, acting through DoT, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), IN-SPACe and others, must decide how Licenses, spectrum, security conditions and liabilities are to be apportioned between them.
IV. The telecom law layer: licenses, fees and authorisations
The Telecommunications Act, 2023, is designed to consolidate multiple older statutes into a single framework. Under section 3, no person may provide a telecommunication service or operate a telecommunication network or telecom equipment in India without an authorisation from the Central Government. While spectrum is generally to be assigned by auction, the Act allows administrative assignment for certain specified purposes, including categories relevant to satellite-based services, as notified in its schedules.15
Until the authorisation regime is fully implemented, satellite operators continue to enter through the existing Unified License and its GMPCS authorisation. DoT's own materials explain that it regulates satellite communication by granting GMPCS and VSAT authorisations under the Unified License framework, positioning satellite services as complements to terrestrial networks for remote and unserved regions.16 Only Indian-incorporated companies may hold these Licenses. Although up to 100% foreign investment is allowed, such entities must disclose foreign shareholding and are subject to security conditions, particularly where control rests with overseas parents.17
Financially, satellite players are plugged into the same revenue-sharing system as the rest of the Indian telecom sector. GMPCS licensees pay a license fee calculated as a percentage of their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). TRAI's May 2025 recommendations on satellite spectrum build on this by suggesting that both geostationary (GSO) and non-geostationary (NGSO) operators should pay 4% of AGR as a spectrum charge, with spectrum given for an initial five-year period, extendable by two years.18 TRAI also proposed an extra ₹500 per year for each urban NGSO subscriber, while exempting rural users, although later comments from DoT indicate that this specific subscriber levy may still be reconsidered.19
The exact numbers matter less than the underlying approach. India is clearly treating satellite broadband as part of the mainstream telecom ecosystem: it must share revenue on an AGR basis, help fund universal access, and comply with the same quality-of-service and lawful- interception rules. For a foreign operator used to a uniform, direct-to-consumer model, this means reworking – specifically for India – its network design, pricing and long-term contracts.
V. The space law layer: from treaties to IN-SPACe
Above this telecom framework lies the quieter layer of international space law. India is a party to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which makes states internationally responsible for national activities in outer space, whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities, and requires them to authorise and continuously supervise the latter.20 India is also party to the 1972 Liability Convention, under which a "launching State" bears absolute liability for damage caused by its space objects on the surface of the Earth and fault-based liability for damage elsewhere.21
Domestically, these obligations have been implemented via policy and administrative mechanisms rather than a comprehensive statute, but those mechanisms are now detailed. ISP 2023 defines private participants as "non-government entities" and permits them to undertake end-to-end space activities, including launching and operating satellites, building ground stations and providing communication, remote sensing and navigation services within and outside India.22 The Norms, Guidelines and Procedures (NGP) for Implementation of ISP 2023, issued by the Department of Space in 2024, designate IN-SPACe as an autonomous, single- window nodal agency to promote, authorise and supervise such activities and to ensure compliance with India's international obligations and national security requirements.23
IN-SPACe is therefore not simply a technical body. When it authorises a constellation like Starlink to operate over India, it is affirming that India will treat those operations as its own national space activities for treaty purposes, and it gains the authority to impose conditions on orbital deployment, debris mitigation, coordination with ISRO, indemnities and third-party liability insurance.24 25 The Union Government has repeatedly signalled its intention to introduce a Space Activities Bill to give statutory backing to licensing, liability and insurance requirements for private and foreign-invested space operators, but even in its absence, ISP 2023 and the NGPs already create a functional, policy-driven space-law regime.
VI. Compliance friction for a foreign constellation
When a foreign-controlled constellation like Starlink enters India's telecom sector, these telecom and space regimes do not sit in neat silos; they intersect in ways that create real compliance friction.
Structurally, Starlink must operate through an Indian-incorporated company that holds the Unified License and GMPCS authorisation, even though the satellites, control centres, and much of the intellectual property sit abroad.26 27 28 The Indian licensee becomes the legally visible face of the constellation, answerable for AGR declarations, fee payments, adherence to License and spectrum conditions, and cooperation with lawful interception orders and blocking directions under Indian law.
Supervisory authority is also dual. As a telecom licensee, Starlink's Indian entity is subject to DoT and TRAI oversight on service quality, customer handling, KYC norms, emergency access and tariff structures, and will ultimately transition into the Telecommunications Act authorisation regime.29 As a space operator, it is under IN-SPACe's continuous supervision, with obligations relating to capacity commitments, orbital parameters, risk mitigation and insurance, all framed in the shadow of India's international liability as a launching state.
On top of this, India has introduced a dense security overlay for satcom operators. In 2025, DoT tightened its satcom rules, requiring companies like Starlink, OneWeb and Jio–SES to comply with around thirty specific security conditions. These include ensuring that websites blocked in India remain inaccessible via satellite services, preventing user terminals from connecting to gateways outside Indian territory, avoiding location spoofing, mandating local data centres for sensitive information, and integrating India's NavIC satellite positioning system into certain services.30 These conditions are explicitly tied to national security and "digital sovereignty" concerns and are accompanied by requirements for phased local manufacturing and real-time cooperation with Indian law-enforcement agencies.31
Finally, there is the question of economic and regulatory time horizons. Starlink has lobbied globally for long-tenure spectrum assignments (on the order of 15–20 years) to justify the high upfront cost of constellations. In India, by contrast, TRAI has recommended five-year satellite spectrum allocations, with possible two-year extensions, to allow the government to reassess market conditions and pricing as the sector matures.32 For a foreign operator, this shorter horizon may be commercially inconvenient, but it reflects India's desire to retain flexibility and leverage in a rapidly changing technological and competitive environment.
VII. Conclusion
For end-users, the shift from a tower-only network to a mixed tower-plus-constellation network looks deceptively simple. A dish appears on the roof, the speed test looks better, and a remote school can finally join the same online classroom as a metropolitan one. But beneath that simplicity lies a layered legal architecture.
On one side is Starlink, bringing foreign capital, global hardware and a dense LEO constellation. On another are Jio and Airtel, embedding satellite capacity into India's existing telecom fabric and using their domestic presence to distribute, bundle and support these services. Holding it together is a regulatory state that is, in real time, writing the rules for how space-based infrastructure can become part of India's everyday telecom.
Over the next decade, India's approach to space-enabled telecom will decide whether satellite broadband becomes a genuine instrument of inclusion or a highly regulated niche dominated by a handful of large players. It will also shape a new professional niche. Lawyers, policymakers and compliance teams who can read a Unified License, understand a TRAI recommendation on satellite spectrum, and interpret IN-SPACe's authorisation conditions in light of the Outer Space Treaty will effectively become the first generation of space-telecom practitioners in India.
Space law, in this sense, is no longer about distant missions and abstract treaties. It is becoming a practical language for regulating something as everyday – and as politically sensitive – as a school's internet connection.
Footnotes
1 Indian Space Policy 2023, Department of Space / ISRO (PDF). www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/IndianSpacePolicy2023.pdf
2 Telecommunications Act, 2023 – key provisions overview, Government of India / press and analyses.
3 Norms, Guidelines and Procedures for Implementation of ISP 2023, IN-SPACe (3 May 2024, PDF). www.inspace.gov.in/sys_attachment.do?sys_id=5d532e37877102503b0f0d060cbb35cf
4 "India turns to private sector for rocket launches," Financial Times (space industry growth and targets).
5 Press Note 4 (2021 Series) – Review of FDI Policy on Telecom Sector, DPIIT (PDF). www.dpiit.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/07/ac023f4ea2330b3a29be1b999dabf826.pdf
6 Press release on FDI reforms in space sector, PIB (21 Feb 2024). www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2007876
7 "Eased FDI Policy for Space Sector," Drishti IAS analysis (27 Feb 2024).
8 DoT GMPCS page listing licensees with UL + GMPCS authorisation as of 10 June 2025: Jio Satellite Communications, OneWeb India, Starlink Satellite Communications. https://eservices.dot.gov.in/gmpcs-global-mobile-personal-communication-satellite-service
9 Reply in Rajya Sabha (Unstarred Question 3216, 21 Aug 2025) confirming Unified License with GMPCS, VSAT and ISP-A authorisations granted to Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited on 06.06.2025.
10 "Elon Musk's Starlink gets approval to start operations in India, but with an 'expiry date' for now," Times of India (2025) – reporting IN-SPACe final approval and time-bound permission.
11 "JioSpaceFiber: Unveiling India's first satellite broadband at India Mobile Congress 2023," Jio. www.jio.com/jcms/jiostories/jiospace-fiber/
12 OneWeb and Hughes Announce Agreement to Bring Low Earth Orbit Satellite Broadband Service to India," Hughes (20 Jan 2022), and related Airtel/OneWeb coverage.
13 "Bharti Airtel joins the satellite broadband race with Starlink," Groww (11 Mar 2025), and TelecomTV coverage of Airtel–Starlink agreement.
14 "India watchdog recommends 5-year satellite spectrum allocation as Starlink nears entry," Reuters (9 May 2025).
15 Telecommunications Act, 2023
16 "Satellite Internet in India," PIB press release explaining DoT's role in regulating satellite communication under the Unified License regime (23 Sept 2025).
17 Press Note 4 (2021 Series) – Review of FDI Policy on Telecom Sector, DPIIT (PDF). www.dpiit.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/07/ac023f4ea2330b3a29be1b999dabf826.pdf
18 "TRAI pegs spectrum charges for satcom cos like Starlink at 4% of revenue," Economic Times; and Deccan Herald coverage of 4% AGR + ₹500 urban-subscriber recommendation (9 May 2025).
19 "DoT rejects Trai plan to charge 'paltry' Rs 500 urban satcom levy," Economic Times (2025).
20 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Outer Space Treaty, 1967). Basic commentary via UNOOSA.
21 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (Liability Convention, 1972). UNOOSA resources and commentaries.
22 Indian Space Policy 2023, Department of Space / ISRO (PDF). www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/IndianSpacePolicy2023.pdf/p>
23 Norms, Guidelines and Procedures for Implementation of ISP 2023, IN-SPACe (3 May 2024, PDF). www.inspace.gov.in/sys_attachment.do?sys_id=5d532e37877102503b0f0d060cbb35cf
24 ibid
25 "Elon Musk's Starlink gets approval to start operations in India, but with an 'expiry date' for now," Times of India (2025) – reporting IN-SPACe final approval and time-bound permission.
26 DoT GMPCS page listing licensees with UL + GMPCS authorisation as of 10 June 2025: Jio Satellite Communications, OneWeb India, Starlink Satellite Communications. https://eservices.dot.gov.in/gmpcs-global-mobile-personal-communication-satellite-service
27 Reply in Rajya Sabha (Unstarred Question 3216, 21 Aug 2025) confirming Unified License with GMPCS, VSAT and ISP-A authorisations granted to Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited on 06.06.2025.
28 "FDI Policy under Continuous Review..." – PIB clarification noting 100% FDI in telecom under automatic route.
29 Telecommunications Act, 2023
30 "India tightens satcom rules: Starlink, OneWeb, Jio-SES must meet 30 security norms to offer services," Economic Times(5 May 2025).
31 "India Tightens Security Rules for Satellite Communication Service Providers," Vajiram & Ravi and Telecom Review Asia summaries (May 2025).
32 "India watchdog recommends 5-year satellite spectrum allocation as Starlink nears entry," Reuters (9 May 2025).
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