India Needs Satellite Internet, Says Scindia

INDIA NEEDS SATELLITE internet, especially in its rural areas, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, a positive regulatory sign for Elon Musk's Starlink which has aspirations to operate in the country.

- Alisha Sachdev, Santosh Kumar & Debjit Chakraborty

"There are many remote corners of the country where you cannot take fibre or mobile connectivity. How do you do 100% saturation if you don't have satellite internet?" Scindia said in an interview in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The minister added that satellite connectivity will be "the only way that you can activate things" if natural disasters destroy towers and fiber networks.

Emphasising the complementary — and not competitive — role played by these services, Scindia said India was committed to offer consumers terrestrial, fiber as well as satellite communications.