Billionaire Elon Musk-owned Starlink, which is gearing up to provide satellite internet services in India, has received clearance to carry out Aadhaar-based verification of potential customers in the country.
The satellite-based internet service provider has been onboarded by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as a Sub-Authentication User Agency (Sub-AUA) and sub-eKYC user agency, according to a press release issued by the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) on Wednesday, August 20.
Sub AUAs are entities that rely on an existing primary AUA to connect to the UIDAI’s central data repository for Aadhaar authentication. Similarly, sub-eKYC user agencies use eKYC user agencies to carry out online verification of customers via Aadhaar data.
Notably, the ministry has stated that Aadhaar-based eKYC of Starlink customers will be on a voluntary basis as per existing norms. “Starlink will use Aadhaar Authentication for customer verification, which will make the entire process smooth, secure and very easy,” it added.
The UIDAI onboarding of Starlink comes more than a month after the SpaceX subsidiary received the last remaining regulatory clearance from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to start offering satcom services in India.
Starlink has been looking to launch services in India for several years now. It has faced licensing hurdles and clashed with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, the country’s telecom giants, over how frequency for such airwaves should be assigned to satcom operators.
The Aadhaar-based verification of Starlink customers in India will be done in compliance with regulatory requirements while delivering high-speed internet to households, businesses, and institutions, the press release read.
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Earlier this month, Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, the minister of state (MoS) for communications, said that Starlink had agreed to store the network data, traffic, and other data locally in India.
Starlink is the third satcom operator to secure all clearances for offering satellite internet services in India. Other players include Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio-SES. Tech giants Amazon Kuiper and Apple vendor Globalstar have also reportedly filed applications to acquire satcom licences in India.
As for Starlink, it may still have some work to do, including setting up ground infrastructure and carrying out testing in line with security standards. Crucially, satcom operators have not been allocated spectrum as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is yet to outline the rules for the same.
In May this year, the DoT issued guidelines for satcom companies operating in India. As per these guidelines, companies are required to set up local manufacturing, data localisation, use domestic navigation systems, implement a blocking mechanism, and cooperate with law enforcement agencies, among other norms.