Washington Washington. Elon Musk's Starlink is seeking security clearance for a license to provide satellite broadband services in India and it will get the permit if it meets all the conditions, the Telecom Minister said on Tuesday.Starlink has been entering India for several years. And its plans got a boost last month when New Delhi said it would not auction spectrum for satellite broadband but instead give it away administratively – as Musk wanted. Rival Indian telecom billionaire Mukesh Ambani wanted an auction.

Indian Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said Starlink is in the process of obtaining security clearance, which will require it to satisfy New Delhi that the company processes and stores data locally and that its satellite signals are secure.Scindia “When you check all the boxes, you get the license. If they (Starlink) do that, we will be very happy,” he said at an event in New Delhi.

The security clearance will take Starlink one step closer to Musk's plans to bring broadband to Indians, a market that Ambani's Reliance Jio currently dominates with 14 million wired subscribers. Ambani, Asia's richest man, has 479 There are also more than 1 million Indian telecom users, but they are worried that after spending $19 billion in the airwave auction, they will now be deprived of broadband customers and potentially data and Voice clients are at risk of being lost to Musk as the technology advances, Reuters has previously reported.

According to a source with direct knowledge, Reliance already has security clearance to launch satellite broadband services. Another source familiar with the matter said Starlink has told the Indian government that it will Ready to comply with all security requirements. Even after security clearance, companies need to acquire spectrum to provide satellite broadband services. Ambani once offered free data on his mobile plans, and Musk has adopted a similar aggressive strategy. In Kenya, Musk set the price of Starlink at $10 per month, compared to $120 in the United States, which upset local telecom companies.