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हिन्दी — Read in HindiSatellite and emerging communications
Satellite internet and emerging ways to communicate: satellite constellations and how their service is licensed and given spectrum, communication between vehicles, short range wireless, photonics and optical links. It serves GS3 answers on communications technology.
Showing 1 of 3 articles, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all
Satellite internet
Satellite internet: the ground segment, the licence and the spectrum
Copy link to Satellite internet: the ground segment, the licence and the spectrumPrelims and Mains
Satellite internet carries a user's traffic from a dish to a passing low Earth orbit satellite, which relays it to a satellite earth station gateway that hands it to the ordinary internet.
Where the service sits
- Only one part of a satellite internet service is in space.
- No cable has to be laid to the user, which is why the service reaches homes that terrain or distance puts beyond a ground network.
- The ground half is the part a government can reach.
The licence and the spectrum
- Selling satellite voice and data in India needs a GMPCS licence from the Department of Telecommunications and an authorisation from IN-SPACe.
- Spectrum is the one input a satellite operator cannot bid for: the Telecommunications Act, 2023 lists satellite services among the uses for which spectrum is assigned administratively, on terms the government sets.
- Terrestrial mobile spectrum is auctioned as exclusive blocks, so a satellite licence is a set of conditions rather than a price.
- The worry that holds the licences is that a foreign operator could route Indian traffic through gateways outside India.
What changed
22 Aug 2026New
- Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications all hold both permissions, and none has been cleared to begin service.
- The Department's guidelines require data localisation, gateways on Indian soil, a lawful blocking mechanism, restriction of services during hostilities and separate security clearance for voice and data.
- User terminals must carry NavIC positioning by 2029.