SpaceX's Starlink, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, told its consumers in India on Jan. 4 that it will be sending refunds to them and cancel their pre-orders.
This decision came a month after the country told the space firm to stop booking the satellite internet service without a license.
SpaceX's Starlink to Send Refund
In an email to its Indian consumers, Starlink said that it was looking forward to making the company available in India as soon as possible, but it does not have clarity on the timeline for getting licenses in order to operate fully.
Starlink stated that they are willing to give its consumers a full refund at any time, and it outlined the steps on how to avail of the said refund, according to Reuters.
Starlink got more than 5,000 pre-orders for its devices in the country, and they were about to conduct pilots already.
In 2021, the space firm appointed the company's head in India, who reached out to dozens of stakeholders in the country to explore different ways to collaborate.
In November 2021, the government told Starlink, which is a competitor of OneWeb and Amazon's Kuiper, that it needs to comply with the rules and regulations and refrain from booking reservations and pre-orders.
Starlink, which had distributed more than 100,000 terminals to its consumers, sees India as a massive market, according to Business Insider.
The head of Starlink in India, Sanjay Bhargava, said that the space firm had plans to deploy more than 200,000 active terminals in more than 160,000 districts in the country by the end of 2022.
In 2021, Starlink deployed 100,000 terminals in India.
Bhargava said that the space firm wants to serve everyone, and they hope to work with other broadband providers and solution providers in order to improve the lives of its consumers.
More than 500 million people in India are active online. However, millions are still having issues in getting a decent internet connection. According to TechCrunch, millions of Indians in rural areas do not have any access to broadband networks.
Bhargava stated that the government approval process is not as simple. There is currently no application pending with India's local government, so it is up to Starlink to apply for consideration, which they are currently working on.
In October, Bhargava said that their approach would be to get pilot approval as fast as possible. They are positive that they will get the green light for a pilot program in the next couple of months.
He cautioned that if this does not push through and they fail to get approval from the government, the number of terminals that they plan to deploy by the end of 2022 will be lower than planned.
Forming India's Subsidiary
In November 2021, Starlink announced an owned subsidiary in India. A local unit needed for an internet company to fully operate in the country has offered its services, thus allowing 200,000 active terminals in 160,000 districts to be planned out by 2022.
As of August 2021, Starlink has shipped more than 100,000 user terminals in 14 countries.
Despite the promising future, Starlink is said to pose a danger to cosmic studies.
Related Article: The U.K. Invests $500 Million on Starlink's Rival, OneWeb
