Starlink has held India's GMPCS satellite authorization since June 2025, yet it still cannot launch commercial services — and Elon Musk now says he knows who to blame.

The SpaceX CEO alleged on X that "certain oligarchs" are blocking Starlink's entry into India to protect their market position, then escalated the attack by naming Reliance's Ambani directly. "Is Ambani the real boss of India?" he asked in a follow-up post.

It is not clear whether Musk means Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, or his son Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm. Reliance Industries spans telecom, retail and energy.

"Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people," Musk wrote. "This is a crime against the people of India!"

What does the government say?

India's government rejected the bias claims outright. In a statement, it said it has "put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunications services, including satellite communication services."

The ministry also clarified the practical holdup: GMPCS licensees must demonstrate compliance with security conditions before launch. The process, it said, is currently underway for all three licensed operators — Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and SES. No one is being singled out, according to the official account.

That framing does not fit easily with Musk's narrative, but nor does it resolve the underlying question: how long the security review will take. The government gave no timeline.

How did Starlink get here?

The path to this standoff has been long. Starlink began accepting pre-orders in India in 2021 without holding the required licenses or approvals. After government intervention, it pursued the necessary permissions and secured its Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite authorization in June 2025.

Authorization, however, has not translated into a commercial launch. Eutelsat OneWeb — backed by India's Bharti group — and Reliance Jio's satellite communications business hold GMPCS licenses too, and they face the same compliance review before they can serve customers.

Musk's frustration may stem from more than paperwork. Jio aims to build a sovereign Low Earth Orbit constellation for India. Every month of delay in Starlink's launch gives Jio and other domestic satellite players more time to establish their positions before a foreign entrant arrives.

Musk himself notes the scale of Starlink's global footprint: the service is licensed in over 165 countries and, by his account, has spent five years complying with every Indian requirement. Five years without a license is a long wait by any market's standards.

Business partners or rivals?

The commercial picture complicates the rhetoric. Jio, the company Musk's posts implicitly accuse of gatekeeping, has an agreement with SpaceX to sell Starlink broadband services in India. Musk is attacking a partner's parent group even as that partner prepares to distribute his product.

The two sides have clashed before on regulatory fundamentals. In response to a TRAI consultation paper, Jio argued that spectrum for satellite services should be auctioned, since satellite players would offer services similar to terrestrial operators. Starlink favored administrative allocation of spectrum — the cheaper, assignment-based route.

That dispute over spectrum pricing remains the structural fault line beneath this week's exchange. An auction would raise Starlink's entry costs; administrative allocation would keep them low. The government's current position on the question is not addressed in the latest statements.

What happens next?

India's government says security assessments apply equally to all three licensed operators, and the commercial race effectively pauses until those clearances land. For now, the world's largest population remains without commercial Starlink service — and Musk's public pressure campaign is the only visible lever he has pulled.