Musk Blames Tycoon for Stalling Satellite Internet Access in India

Elon Musk wants to bring satellite internet to India and is accusing some of the country’s richest businessmen of standing in his way.But the bigger obstacle might be the Indian government’s desire to control who can connect to the internet and when.Mr.

Musk, the world’s richest man, posted last week on his social-media network that Starlink, his satellite internet service, was “being blocked by certain oligarchs” from operating in India.He accused his rivals of protecting a “monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.”The dispute developed as the Indian authorities asserted control over communications.

Before young people took to the streets of New Delhi on Saturday to protest a purge of election rolls, the police shut down mobile data connections within a 2.5-mile radius in the capital’s center.For India’s police, such shutdowns have become a routine crowd-control tool.Protesters, journalists and bystanders were left without mobile internet access.“If you want to ensure that any protest is nipped in the bud,” said Jayna Kothari, the executive director of the Center for Law and Policy Research in Bengaluru, “the main way to do it is internet shutdowns.”Mr.

Musk, however, had his eye on commercial competition.He identified the oligarch he had in mind: Mukesh Ambani, one of the country’s richest men and owner of Jio, India’s largest mobile network.Jio is developing its own low-earth-orbit satellite system, which could compete with Starlink.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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