The party warned that the agreements violate guidelines set by the Supreme Court on spectrum allocation and threaten India’s strategic autonomy by allowing a foreign entity access to sensitive national security data.
Published Mar 13, 2025 | 5:59 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 13, 2025 | 5:59 PM
Synopsis: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has raised serious concerns over agreements between Indian telecom giants Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and US-based SpaceX, arguing that the deals violate Supreme Court guidelines on spectrum allocation and endanger national security. The party warned that granting a foreign company control over India’s satellite spectrum and orbital slots could undermine strategic autonomy.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has expressed serious concerns over agreements between telecom giants Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and the United States-based SpaceX for introducing Starlink, the satellite-based broadband service.
In a strongly worded statement on Thursday, 14 March, the CPI(M) polit bureau warned that the agreements violate guidelines set by the Supreme Court on spectrum allocation and threaten India’s strategic autonomy by allowing a foreign entity access to sensitive national security data.
#CPIM Polit Bureau statement on the #Starlink deal#StarlinkIndia pic.twitter.com/Ly1iYJpInw
— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) March 13, 2025
Earlier this week, both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel announced agreements with SpaceX in quick succession to provide Starlink services in India.
The companies said the partnership will bring affordable, high-speed broadband to remote and rural areas, strengthening India’s digital infrastructure.
However, there is little clarity on the legality of the deals, which remain subject to approval from the Union government. Furthermore, SpaceX does not yet have regulatory clearance to operate in the country.
The CPI-M highlighted the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2G spectrum case, which established that spectrum must be allocated through a transparent public auction.
“The Supreme Court ruled in the 2G case that spectrum is a scarce resource and can be allocated to private players only through an open, transparent auction,” the party stated.
“Any private deal for allocating spectrum would violate the law of the land. Jio, Airtel, and Starlink forming a cartel to dominate satellite spectrum use will be at the cost of millions of telecom subscribers in India
The CPI-M also raised serious national security concerns, arguing that satellite spectrum should be reserved for strategic use by India’s defence agencies and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The party warned that allowing SpaceX to control orbital slots over India could enable the mapping of critical national resources, such as agriculture, weather patterns, and defence infrastructure.
“It is now known that the United States’ threats to stop Starlink services to the Ukrainian military forced President Volodymyr Zelensky to concede to US demands regarding the control of natural resources and negotiations with Russia under US aegis,” the statement added.
“Allowing a US company to acquire highly strategic satellite spectrum and orbital slots and create a space monopoly compromises our national sovereignty and security.”
Developed by SpaceX, Starlink is designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband internet service to remote areas inaccessible through traditional internet service providers.
It does this by using ‘mini-satellites’ that orbit the Earth at relatively low altitudes (between 340 km and 1,200 km) to reduce latency to around 20-40 milliseconds.
Users access the service through a phased-array dish that connects to the nearest satellite, which then relays data either to a ground station or via inter-satellite laser links. While objectively inferior to a wired high-speed internet connection, Starlink’s key advantage is accessibility.
Since its launch, however, the company has faced criticism on multiple fronts, including concerns over sustainability, interference with scientific research, and potential violations of the sovereignty of independent nations.
Additionally, the cost of each connection is prohibitively expensive, making it unaffordable for the average user.
As of 2025, SpaceX has launched approximately 5,000 of these mini-satellites into orbit, with plans to expand to a constellation of up to 42,000. However, each of these satellites has a relatively short lifespan, estimated at around five years.
The production and launch of thousands of satellites require significant amounts of rare-earth metals and contribute substantially to carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, Starlink has been embroiled in legal disputes in countries such as South Africa and Brazil for refusing to comply with local regulations.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
