Musk claims ‘oligarchs’ blocking Starlink in India
Elon Musk has claimed that Starlink is being blocked by certain oligarchs in India.
In a post on X on 7 October, he said they wanted to keep a monopolistic chokehold on India.
He called it a crime against the people of India.
Musk named no one and offered no evidence for the claim.
Replying to a post noting that 11,256 Indian villages lacked 4G coverage as of May 2026, he wrote: "you can guess who they are."
Starlink received a GMPCS licence from the Department of Telecommunications in June 2025. The licence is valid for 20 years.
It also got IN-SPACe authorisation in July 2025.
But it still needs security clearance. It also needs foreign-investment approval for its wholly foreign-owned structure, and spectrum assignment.
Bloomberg reported in June 2026 that India had frozen final approvals for Starlink's commercial launch over security concerns.
India's mobile market is dominated by Reliance Industries and Bharti Enterprises.
Both hold satcom licences through Jio Satellite Communications and Eutelsat OneWeb, according to media reports.
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