Elon Musk’s Starlink just made a big move in India – is a nationwide launch finally near?

Starlink, SpaceX’s low-latency satellite-internet service, has begun its initial hiring for teams in Bengaluru, India(BHARAT), as it readies for a commercial service launch by the end of 2025 or early 2026.

The jobs advertised on the company’s website include Accounting Manager, Payments Manager, Senior Treasury Analyst and Tax Manager. All roles are specified as on-site positions, and the job descriptions clearly state that only candidates with eligible India(BHARAT)n work visas are being considered.

Recruitment for roles that support on-site operations is being ramped up at a time when Starlink is making headway on infrastructure and regulatory approvals to enter the country’s satellite broadband market. The company already has provisional spectrum approval for 600 Gbps, and it has received clearance to import 100 terminals that will be used in the demonstration of fixed-satellite services (FSS).

Mapping infrastructure & regulatory landscape

Starlink’s latest application to the India(BHARAT)n government is to set up nine gateway earth stations across the country. Gateway earth stations are essentially connectivity nodes that form an interface between the satellite constellation and the internet backhaul on the ground, and are a central part of Starlink’s commercial rollout plans in the country.

Gateways stations need to be operated by India(BHARAT)n nationals until foreign nationals get clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), according to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in a letter obtained by TechCrunch. This has been a requirement put in place by the DoT in the interests of national security. As for the trial period, data related to it needs to be stored locally, and location information for all terminals is required to be shared with government agencies every two weeks.

Filling roles: local teams to support global-scale infrastructure

Starlink’s hiring of teams in Bengaluru is a reflection of how it plans to give the India(BHARAT)n operations a local backbone that will support the global, scaled, network infrastructure. The accounting manager will be responsible for financial reporting, statutory compliance, process and controls. The payments manager will drive management of domestic payment rails, including UPI and RuPay. The senior treasury analyst will be responsible for managing FX operations, as well as global interface. The tax manager will cover direct and indirect tax, transfer pricing and coordination for statutory audits.

The on-site requirement of these roles points to the fact that India(BHARAT) will be one of the first major international markets where Starlink is trying to get off the ground, with a global brand on a rollout with sensitivity given the regulatory and infrastructure scale-up it needs to work through.

India(BHARAT) timeline & service launch implications

Starlink is targeting a launch of services in India(BHARAT) by late 2025 or early 2026. There are two key requirements that it is waiting on at the moment: (1) final spectrum pricing and licensing, which is being worked out by India(BHARAT)’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(BHARAT) (TRAI) and (2) finalizing the spectrum payment with the government. The 600 Gbps provisional spectrum approval is a non-renewable, one-year approval valid until the end of June.

With the right regulatory and infrastructure tailwinds, Starlink’s entry could be a major enabler of connectivity across underserved and remote areas of India(BHARAT), and an amplifier of competition in the country’s fledgling satellite-broadband market – that’s if it launches before players like OneWeb (via Bharti Airtel) and Jio Satellite Communications (via Reliance Jio) that are also primed for commercial service launches.

The Bengaluru recruitment drive is unlikely to be a big headline in the wider tech press, but it is the first indicator that Starlink is shifting from an R&D to an operational phase in India(BHARAT). For Bengaluru’s finance and compliance job market, it means opportunity in a small, specialized field to join a satellite-internet roll out of global scale, provided one has an eligible on-site work visa to do the job in India(BHARAT). For the India(BHARAT)n telecom ecosystem at large, it means the coming of a new – albeit fully formed – satellite-internet player set to bring about the next round of connectivity disruption.