Month: March 2025

With the current fiscal year nearing an end, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has collected Rs 3.35 crore from the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as dues. This contribution is part of a larger effort by various government departments to clear their outstanding dues and support urban development initiatives.

IMC Revenue in-charge Niranjan Chouhan said the municipal body has been actively working to ensure that property tax and other dues are deposited. These contributions are a crucial part of this revenue collection drive, helping the IMC work on essential infrastructure and public services.

Some government institutions, including the police departments and the CPWD, have yet to clear their outstanding dues despite repeated communications from the municipal corporation, said IMC officials. They said the IMC’s proactive approach in tax collection will contribute significantly to the city’s infrastructural growth, ensuring better facilities and services for residents. Free Press Journal

As Starlink nears regulatory approval in India for satellite broadband services, analysts say a victory there could pave a road into more emerging markets and boost the company’s ambitions to add a million subscribers every year.

There are still legal hurdles to overcome, and competition from companies such as Eutelsat and China’s SpaceSail, which is entering Brazil, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. SpaceX also argues that U.S. regulations put it at a disadvantage against foreign rivals.

But a foothold in India would be a potential $25 billion boon for Starlink, helping it reshape that country’s satellite broadband industry and making an attractive case to other developing markets, experts say.

“Starlink securing the contract serves both as a strategic PR victory and a demonstration that it has successfully navigated challenges that seemed insurmountable for most other operators. From Starlink’s perspective, India is not only a credibility boost but also a crucial test of its economic feasibility in emerging markets,” said independent satcom specialist Davis Mathew Kuriakose.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX-owned satellite internet network has been waiting since 2022 for licenses to operate commercially in India, locked in a regulatory impasse over spectrum allocation. Starlink did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The standoff saw Starlink clash publicly with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel over whether India should auction satellite broadband spectrum – favouring existing telecom players – or allocate it administratively, which would benefit newer entrants such as Starlink.

India decided in October it would allocate the bandwidth.

In a surprise development this month, Mittal’s Airtel and Ambani’s Jio signed separate agreements with SpaceX to bring Starlink services to India, a move industry insiders say signals that regulatory hurdles may soon clear.

Goldman Sachs forecasts that low Earth orbit (LEO) subscription fees, which include broadband and mobile services, will get dramatically cheaper, with prices dropping from $148 per month in 2023 to about $16 per month by 2035. Goldman also estimates the global satellite market will surge from $15 billion to at least $108 billion by 2035.

Space-focused financial firm Quilty Space projects Starlink will add 3 million subscribers globally in 2025, with 1 million coming from Asia, its director of research Caleb Henry said.

“India will be the biggest contributor to Starlink’s Asia subscriber growth once authorized,” Henry said.

A seat at the table
Six industry experts interviewed by Reuters noted that SpaceX’s revenue gains in India will depend on its pricing strategy.

Three of them expect Starlink to offer competitive broadband plans, potentially starting at $15 a month — a price point designed to challenge India’s existing market, where basic plans start at about $12.

“There’s always going to be a subset of the market willing to pay a premium for convenience. India is an aspirational market, and the brand value of having a Starlink connection is also an added edge,” said Vivek Prasad, principal analyst for space and satellite at consulting firm Analysys Mason.

Starlink operates in more than 120 markets with varying levels of regulatory complexity, including spectrum coordination requirements.

The company’s deals with Reliance and Airtel need final regulatory clearances but were signed just weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Musk in Washington — an interaction that analysts say may have helped smooth the way.

Approval in India would give Starlink a leg up on any rivals hoping to enter that country, said three industry executives who declined to be named because of business sensitivities.

“India’s satellite internet market is just coming up, with a potential addressable market of some 700 million customers. Starlink gets a seat at the table to influence how that market develops,” said one senior executive.

India’s space regulator and the department of telecoms did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Starlink’s license approval.

The SatCom Industry Association – India said Starlink’s entry would foster growth in the sector.

“This will fuel employment growth in satellite network operations, ground stations, equipment manufacturing, and rural broadband services, while enhancing the global competitiveness of Indian space startups collaborating with international players,” the industry body said. Reuters

The British-based Sky broadcasting group said on Thursday that 2,000 jobs in the UK, or seven percent of its workforce, could be at risk as the company shakes up its customer services.

“We’re transforming our business to deliver quicker, simpler, and more digital customer service,” a spokesperson for the US-owned broadcaster told AFP.

It was about building “a future-ready Sky”, the spokesperson said, adding customers wanted different ways of contacting the company 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Three of its 10 contact centres in northern England are believed to be closing, putting around 2,000 roles at risk.

While customers wanted to be able to speak directly to an adviser, they also wanted the flexibility to pay bills or manage their contract digitally, the company said.

Sky said its transformation would involve a multi-million-pound investment in its new state-of-the-art campus in Livingston, Scotland.

Formerly owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, Sky has been run by US cable giant Comcast since 2018.

In addition to the proposed closure of the Stockport, Sheffield and Leeds Central contact centres, operations at Dunfermline and Newcastle would also be affected. AFP

The Trump administration’s nominee to oversee a $42 billion government fund to bring high-speed broadband internet to unserved or underserved parts of the United States denied on Thursday that she would administer the program to benefit Starlink owner Elon Musk.

Democrats have suggested that Musk, a billionaire and close adviser to President Donald Trump, could receive as much as $20 billion of the funding by eliminating the program’s preference for fiber and boosting satellite service.

Arielle Roth, who has been nominated to head the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said at a Senate hearing that she will “administer the program to the benefit of the American people, not any single individual or company.”

U.S. Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, noted that the law gave preference to fiber because it was cheaper. “I strongly urge you to oppose this giveaway to Elon Musk,” Markey said.

Republicans have criticized the program because it was approved in 2021 and has yet to connect any Americans to the internet.

Markey said the program does not exclude satellite service but limits it to areas where fiber is excessively expensive.

Senate Committee chair Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, suggested the Biden administration had blacklisted Musk for political reasons.

To date, three states have received approval of their final proposal, four states have completed their selection of internet service providers, and 30 states are in the midst of running application rounds.

Democrats note that the Trump administration has not moved state programs forward in the process since retaking the White House in January.

Earlier this month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the department has launched a review of the program “to take a tech-neutral approach that is rigorously driven by outcomes, so states can provide internet access for the lowest cost.” Reuters

The European Commission is looking at ways to cut overlap in tech rules in response to complaints from business about the flood of new EU regulations in recent years, digital chief Henna Virkkunen said.

Outside a meeting in Amsterdam, Virkkunen told reporters she had no plans to water down laws such as the Digital Services Act which governs content moderation, the Digital Markets Act, which governs big tech platforms, or the AI Act which applies risk-based rules to artificial intelligence, as part of a review of the rules.

“Everybody who is doing business in Europe has to respect our rules here. European companies, but also American and Chinese,” she said.

The European Union has been at the forefront of regulating technology, drawing criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump because dominant U.S. big tech firms are often targeted, and from European businesses that say over-regulation stifling innovation.

Virkkunen said the commission is looking at ways to make life easier for companies.

“We will look at all our digital rules … often it’s the same company who has to comply with the different rules, ” she said.

“It’s possible that we are amending some parts of them where we see that there are, for example, overlapping parts, and we are also looking at how we can cut red tape and bureaucracy, especially for example, reporting obligations,” she said.

She also said she favors enforcement of existing rules evenly across EU countries above pursuing further new directives governing tech.

The commission earlier this month delayed adopting new climate change targets and sustainability rules following complaints that over-regulation is reducing EU competitiveness versus U.S. and Chinese rivals. Reuters