Elon Musk posted on X on Wednesday night accusing unnamed Indian business figures of deliberately blocking Starlink from launching commercially in the country. “Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people. You can guess who they are… This is a crime against the people of India!” he wrote.
He didn’t name anyone.
Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people. You can guess who they are …
This is a crime against the people of India!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2026
Starlink’s India story is five years old at this point. The Tech Portal first covered it in March 2021, when SpaceX opened pre-orders at $99. Within months, the Indian government shut those pre-orders down — Starlink had no license, and the DoT told consumers not to sign up. SpaceX set up a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary the same month, issued refunds, and began the long, grinding regulatory process that has continued ever since.
The breakthrough — at least on paper — came in the past eighteen months. Airtel partnered with SpaceX in March 2025, Jio followed. Starlink received its DoT license in June 2025 and its IN-SPACe clearance a month later. By any reading, the doors to India were open.
And yet, as of October 8, 2026, Starlink has not launched commercial services in India.
At the India Mobile Congress on Tuesday — one day before Musk’s post — a senior SpaceX executive confirmed the company has 20 gateway sites built and its infrastructure ready to meet India’s security and regulatory requirements. One clearance is still pending. No confirmed launch date has been given.
The delay sits in the space between a completed licensing process and actual spectrum allocation, something that policy experts say India’s regulatory bodies are not prepared for. Musk’s post is his most direct public characterisation yet of why that gap exists. His earlier exchanges on this topic were pointed: in 2024, he openly argued against Jio’s push for satellite spectrum auctions, and said he’d call Mukesh Ambani directly to ask if Starlink could compete.
Wednesday’s post dropped the diplomatic framing entirely.
The market Starlink is waiting to enter is not a small one, and hence Musk’s apparent frustration. Nearly 40% of India’s 1.4 billion people remain unconnected to reliable internet. The satellite broadband market is projected to reach $1.9 billion by 2030. Both Airtel and Jio have distribution agreements with Starlink ready to activate.