India has rolled out stringent regulations for satellite communication services amid surging foreign interest in its dynamic satcom market. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) unveiled comprehensive security guidelines targeting Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite Services (GMPCS) license holders. The move aims to enhance national security as international companies explore the Indian satcom arena.
The rules impose over 20 security mandates. These include data localization, real-time monitoring, terminal registration, and geo-fencing. By 2029, providers must integrate with NavIC, India’s indigenous alternative to GPS. Prominent industry players like Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and Bharti Airtel’s Eutelsat-OneWeb are keen on entering or expanding in India.
Starlink experienced regulatory setbacks since its GMPCS application in 2022. However, post discussions with Indian telecom authorities and proposal adjustments, the SpaceX-backed company’s approval seems imminent. Still, aligning with the DoT’s security protocols remains crucial for operational launch.
Bharti Airtel-backed Eutelsat-OneWeb, on the other hand, successfully navigated initial regulatory pathways and now offers local satellite broadband services. Sunil Mittal, Bharti Group Chairman, highlighted their readiness to serve India’s remote regions. Yet, even leaders like OneWeb must meet DoT’s tightened security benchmarks, including compliance of infrastructural components like gateways and authentication systems.
These regulatory measures reflect a broader governmental effort to ensure national security as satellite services penetrate deeper into India’s geography, even into sensitive territories. The guidelines mandate domestic DNS resolver usage, authorized terminal access, and robust geo-fencing to prevent signal breaches into adjacent countries.
The DoT iterated, “Indian user traffic shall not be routed through any Gateway/PoP located abroad or any space system, which is not part of satellite/constellation used for providing service… Indian user traffic shall not be mirrored to any system/server located abroad.” Compliance includes actions such as service disablement in specific areas if demanded by national security bodies.
Moreover, there’s a significant push towards domestic manufacturing. Satcom entities must source at least 20% of terrestrial infrastructure from Indian producers within five years of commencement, echoing India’s wider “Make in India” agenda across sectors like telecom and defense.
India’s regulatory overhaul also touches its burgeoning satellite IoT landscape. Operators like Kinéis, targeting low-data-rate IoT applications such as agriculture and logistics, must adhere to these new norms to thrive in India.
