The billionaire Elon Musk satellite Internet company Starlink told its users on Tuesday that the Indian government has asked the company to return all Deposits for pre-orders until they obtain an operating license in the country.
The company stated in an email to customers: As always, you can receive a refund at any time.
Starlink is a division of Musk’s SpaceX Aerospace Company. The service has received more than 5,000 equipment pre-orders in India, but so far they have not obtained a commercial service license issued by the Indian government, and lack of a license means they cannot provide services to customers in India.
The company stated to its customers in an email: Unfortunately, we still don’t know when we will be able to obtain a license in India to provide services to customers here. There are also several issues that must be resolved within the licensing framework. So that we can operate Starlink services in India. The company also said: The Starlink team looks forward to launching this service in India as soon as possible.
However, the Indian government has previously advised people not to order Starlink services without the company’s license and ordered the company not to accept reservations and provide services.
Starlink plans to apply for a business license in India by the end of January this year. Sanjay Bhargava, Director of SpaceX’s India area, said on social media last month that a report indicated that their goal is to 2022. 200,000 devices were deployed in India in December 2015.
However, in an article published on LinkedIn on Tuesday, Bahajwa said that due to personal reasons, he had already stepped down from the position of director and chairman of the board of directors in India. According to his information on the platform, he has assumed this position since October last year.
Starlink’s competitors include Amazon’s Kuiper and OneWeb, the latter a satellite service operator that was rescued by the British government and India’s Batty Group that was once facing bankruptcy.