Starlink Executive Clarifies: India Pricing Was a 'Glitch', Still Awaiting Launch Approval

Starlink, the satellite internet service provider, has yet to launch its operations in India. However, recently, its website in the country was updated to reveal the prices of its monthly subscription, which includes the cost of hardware, for the Residential plan. After the prices surfaced online, a company executive revealed that the Indian website of the satellite communications (satcom) firm is not live currently, and the prices were displayed due to a technical glitch. While the company did reportedly receive a licence to operate in the country, a spectrum for the same is yet to be allotted by the government.

Starlink Issues Statement on India Prices, Updates Website

In a post on X, the Vice President of Business Operations at Starlink, Lauren Dreyer, revealed on Monday that the Starlink India website is not currently live. Dreyer highlighted that the “service pricing for customers” in the country has yet to be announced. Hence, the satcom firm is not taking orders from Indian customers. Gadgets 360 first reported the India pricing of Starlink's Residential plan, which has now been taken down by the SpaceX-owned firm.

Explaining how the prices appeared on Starlink's website, the company executive said that the “dummy test data” was “briefly” displayed on the website due to a “config glitch”. Dreyer added that the reported prices “do not reflect what the cost of Starlink service will be in India”.

She also said that Starlink is waiting to receive “final government approvals to turn service (and the website) on”. Soon after the prices were made public, the tech firm received a lot of flak for the relatively steep pricing.

It is worth noting that Elon Musk-led SpaceX, the parent company of Starlink, received a licence from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in July to operate and use Starlink satellites for commercial services, according to a report. With a reported validity of five years, the company was the third to receive approval, after Eutelsat's OneWeb and Reliance Jio. However, the government has yet to allocate spectrum bands to Starlink, which currently doesn't allow the company to launch commercial operations.

As previously mentioned, Gadgets 360 staff members spotted the subscription price on the company website. The same was set at Rs. 8,600 per month for Starlink's satellite internet service. The subscription price was shown to include the cost of hardware worth Rs. 34,000. Apart from the subscription fee, the website also stated the features the plan would offer. Starlink's website highlighted that it will offer unlimited data, along with a 30-day trial to its Residential subscribers in India.