“India’s two major telecom operators signed separate deals with Elon Musk’s spaceflight company SpaceX in mid-March in a move that could signal his satellite internet network Starlink is one step closer to gaining entry to the South Asian country and its population of some 1.44 billion people.

The collaborations represented about-turns for the billionaire owners of India’s two largest telecommunications companies, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd, who had vocally opposed Starlink’s gaining access to India just months earlier. Starlink has been seeking a license to operate in the country since 2021.

The deals notwithstanding, Starlink still requires the approval of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India before it can legally operate in the country.”

From Bloomberg.