Eutelsat OneWeb should receive approvals ahead of Starlink as it is ahead in the queue, having applied five years ago, Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said on Wednesday, days after Elon Musk publicly alleged that some Indian businesses were hindering Starlink’s entry into India.
“As I have already said, we are awaiting our approvals. I believe we are significantly ahead of him in the queue because we applied five years ago,” Mittal said during a panel discussion at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026.
“Our ground networks have been ready for the past three years, and our satellites have been hovering over India for the past five years. We still do not have the necessary permission, so we would be very happy to receive it, even a few days before him,” Mittal added.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk shared a series of posts on X, the social media platform he owns, over the past week in which he named Reliance Industries and IPO-bound Reliance Jio, alleging that the group was blocking Starlink’s entry into India.
Musk also questioned delays in approvals despite Starlink having established operations in India over the past few years.
On October 7, Lauren Dreyer, vice-president of Starlink business operations at SpaceX, said the satellite broadband services provider had built its India operations, including 20 gateways comprising hundreds of antennas, over the past five years.
She said the company had ensured that controls remained in India, met security requirements and was ready to begin services.
The Indian government had responded to Musk’s allegations, with the Ministry of Communications saying that no preferential clearance was being given to any single satellite communications operator and that a fair and non-discriminatory process was being followed.
“At present, all the three entities are at broadly the same regulatory stage. As such, the suggestion that the framework or its application is unfair or discriminatory is baseless and misconceived,” the ministry had said.
Musk continued his criticism over the weekend, taking another shot at the Reliance group and calling it a “de facto monopoly in India”.
He also said Starlink’s services in India would have to be affordable for more people and argued that competition would benefit consumers, even if that meant Reliance Jio making a little less money.
