India Rejects Musk's Claim That 'Oligarchs' Are Blocking Starlink, Says All Three Satellite Licensees Are at Same Stage

Elon Musk accused unnamed "oligarchs" on Wednesday of blocking Starlink's launch in India. The Indian government has now answered, in writing, that he is wrong.

"Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people," Musk wrote on X. "You can guess who they are... This is a crime against the people of India!"

He named no one and offered no evidence. The post was a reply to the account DogeDesigner, which argued India needs Starlink and urged the government to finish the remaining clearances and spectrum allocation.

In a statement released through the Press Information Bureau on Thursday, the Ministry of Communications said India has a "fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services."

The ministry said licences have been granted to three satellite operators. Every licensee must demonstrate compliance with security conditions. A security assessment is "currently under way in respect of all the three licensees."

Once that assessment is done for a company, it may move on to seeking spectrum. "At present, all the three entities are at broadly the same regulatory stage," the ministry said. It called the suggestion of unfair treatment "baseless and misconceived." The ministry did not name the three companies. Business Standard reported that the ministry also said preferential clearance of any single operator would be inconsistent with that framework.

The other two licensees are Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms. Amazon Leo is still seeking a licence, according to NDTV.

Starlink's complaint is about time. The company has spent more than five years trying to enter India, a market with over a billion internet subscribers. It has held its licence for more than a year and signed deals last year with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. It still has not launched.

Hours before Musk's post, Lauren Dreyer, Starlink's vice president of business operations, spoke at India Mobile Congress in New Delhi. "We stand ready to serve India, as soon as India is ready," she said.

Dreyer said Starlink has built India-specific security controls and 20 gateway sites, and is "keeping Indian users' data within India." TechCrunch reported the company also has hundreds of antennas on the ground. She said the service runs on 11,000 satellites and reaches more than 170 countries.

The DogeDesigner post Musk replied to cited government-linked figures. It said 11,256 listed villages still lacked 4G coverage as of May 2026. It also said BharatNet's points of presence were operational at only 80,472 Gram Panchayats in June 2026.

Musk's "oligarchs" line points at a real concentration of market power, though he did not say whom he meant. Mukesh Ambani's Jio and Sunil Mittal's Airtel together hold more than 80% of India's telecom market, according to CNBC.

They are also Starlink's partners and, in Jio's case, a prospective competitor. In June, Jio Platforms announced plans for low-orbit satellite services. Akash Ambani told shareholders the company would lease capacity from global constellation providers.

The two sides have clashed before. Starlink wanted satellite spectrum assigned administratively. Reliance Jio argued it should be auctioned. CNBC and TechCrunch both note that Starlink has also faced regulatory pushback in India over security concerns. The company has denied those concerns.

Starlink's history in the country is not spotless either. In early 2022 it refunded customer preorders after the Indian government objected that it had taken bookings before getting the required licences.

Airtel and Reliance had not responded to CNBC's request for comment at the time of its report.

The two accounts do not conflict on the basic facts. Starlink holds a licence, and it cannot sell service until the security assessment is finished and spectrum is assigned. The government says all three licensees are in the same queue. Musk says the queue is rigged but has produced nothing to back that up.

The ministry's statement gives no completion date for the security assessments, and no timeline for spectrum assignment. Until a licensee clears the security review and applies for spectrum, there is no outside way to test the claim that the process is even-handed. Whichever of the three clears it first will answer part of Musk's accusation.