Starlink updated its product availability map on February 12, 2025, making Bhutan the 121st country in the world to join its footprint. File
| Photo Credit: AFP
Even as all eyes are on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and his key advisors, Elon Musk’s Starlink has stolen a march into South Asia by setting up in neighbouring Bhutan first.
The announcement came as the U.S. satellite-based services company Starlink updated its product availability map on February 12, 2025, making Bhutan the 121st country in the world to join its footprint. India has thus far not provided Starlink permissions to operate in India, mainly over security and privacy concerns, as well as pricing issues and concerns from the local telecom and satellite industry.
As PM Modi arrives in Washington for a 24-hour visit, officials said the future of Starlink’s plans for India could come up for discussion. Thus far, telecom officials have said they are reviewing the “security arrangements in place for the ground stations” from which Starlink traffic would flow to users in India, and regulatory processes remain underway.
In 2020, SpaceX, another company also owned by Mr. Musk had signed up to send Bhutan’s first satellite into space orbit as well, launching BHUTAN-1 in June 2018, aboard SpaceX’s CRS-15 mission, four years before ISRO had launched the India-Bhutan SAT in 2022.
While a visit by Mr. Musk to India in April 2024 was expected to help iron out the issues, Mr. Musk cancelled his travel plans to New Delhi abruptly then. In July, Starlink’s director of global licensing Rebecca Hunter met Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in Thimphu, following which official agency GovTech was asked to evaluate the potential impact of introducing Starlink in the country.
“While optical fibres would be the primary medium for global connectivity, with geographical interconnection difficulties and Bhutan being landlocked, it is important for us to have alternative channels and technologies for global connectivity. Starlink opens that possibility to be globally connected and we are excited to have the Starlink connection in Bhutan,” Bhutan’s top tech innovator, Ujjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holding and Investments Limited, the Bhutanese Government’s commercial arm told The Hindu in Thimphu.
However, Mr. Dahal, who is also on the board of local telecom major Bhutan Telecom, indicated it would be necessary to ensure Bhutan’s national communications infrastructure remains sustainable.
In December 2024, the Bhutan Information Communication and Media Authority (BICMA) had approved a local Starlink subsidiary’s tariffs for service in the country. A typical plan costs ₹4,200 per month, after a standard initial kit cost of ₹33,000 (plus shipping), moving up to ₹2,31000. The prices are in Bhutanese ngultrum, which are pegged to the Indian rupee at parity. Telecom tariffs in Bhutan require prior approval.
Another Bhutanese telecom executive said that service providers in the country were “a little bit” worried about the competition Starlink might pose to their businesses, but not a lot, as the initial setup cost for a Starlink terminal would be prohibitive to many.
While the costs of setting up Starlink are prohibitive for ordinary citizens in a country, Starlink services are expected to be used by businesses and commercial and educational institutions, especially in remote mountainous areas of Bhutan, where laying optical fibre and constructing cellular towers proves a challenge.
For young professionals like Kuengzam in Thimphu, who use the internet and broadband for several hours a day, the Starlink launch is still a curiosity. When asked if she would switch to the new internet provider, she said much would depend on how much cheaper the services would be. “Otherwise, I would always trust a Bhutanese company”, the young trainee executive said.
In India, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. has mounted an extensive campaign to ensure that satellite spectrum is auctioned, and not administratively assigned at fixed prices, a demand that would put India at odds with other countries where satellite internet services operate widely.
(With inputs from Aroon Deep in New Delhi)
Published – February 12, 2025 08:15 pm IST
