New Delhi, Nov 13: Bharti Airtel Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said India must keep control of the “kill switch” for satellite communications on its own soil, as the government weighs security conditions that will decide when satellite broadband goes live.
“The kill switch, as we call it, should not be sitting somewhere else,” Mittal said in an interview with PTI marking Bharti Enterprises’ 50th year. “India must have control over its own space destiny.”
He did not name a company in that remark.
The kill switch is the ability to cut off, throttle or restrict a satellite network’s service, whether for a single terminal, a region or an entire country, from the operator’s control systems and ground gateways. In satellite broadband, user terminals connect to satellites, which relay traffic to ground stations and then to the internet, so whoever runs those control and gateway systems can in principle disable users or reroute their data.
Governments see it as a security tool. It would let them shut down service quickly in a conflict, during a security threat or to enforce lawful orders, and it would let them monitor and intercept traffic.
The implications cut both ways. If the switch sits with a foreign operator or abroad, a country’s military, emergency and civilian users can lose connectivity because of a decision made elsewhere, which Mittal calls losing control of “its own space destiny.”
If it sits with the government, that same power can be used to cut off access in national emergencies or for strategic reasons.
It is for these reasons that security clearances, in-country gateways and monitoring requirements will shape who can launch satellite broadband in India and how fast.
Mittal pointed to Ukraine, saying that “if Ukraine is using Starlink, it’s also using OneWeb now”.
Last month, Ukraine accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of undermining the country’s ability to defend itself by cutting connectivity speeds, disrupting military operations. Those restrictions, rendered some Ukrainian strike and interceptor drones virtually unusable.
Whether the government’s scrutiny of satellite operators is justified, Mittal said it is. He argued that warfare is moving to space. “Whether it’s drone or it’s cyber issues, or indeed guided missiles and all, they’re all going to be managed from space,” he said.
“Everybody in the world needs to have control over its security,” he said. “There India will need to have guardrails. It’ll need to secure itself.”
He said India should not lean on a single provider. “Importantly, it may need to have different players. You can’t just depend on one country or one company,” he said. India must also ensure “the security of the apparatus, of the equipment, the communications coming down into the ground to be monitored,” and “everything should be routed through India,” he added.
He said Eutelsat OneWeb is building a secure European communications network, in which he said the EU is spending 14-15 billion euros, and that this has drawn attention to the company.
Mittal said OneWeb’s service already works in India. “The government occasionally uses their terminals for emergency services,” he said.
As an example, he said economic adviser Sanjeev Sanyal took a terminal on a boat trip to Oman.
“He was streaming all the way through,” Mittal said. “It is, right now, fully available. We can just switch it on soon.”
“We were the first licence given by the government. We have satisfied all their needs, and we just now wait for their signal,” he said. “I still hope we’ll get the first approval.”
Three companies hold satellite communications licences in India: Jio, OneWeb and Starlink. The government has said all three operators hold provisional spectrum and are at a similar stage, and that final launch depends on security clearance.
On the spectrum debate, Mittal said satellite spectrum is shared. “Everybody dips into the same spectrum,” he said, with operators at different orbital heights having to coordinate. He said OneWeb has “the highest priority on the KU band, and therefore others have to coordinate with us,” and that the regulators understand the debate.
Mittal said satellite will not replace mobile networks. “For the foreseeable future it will remain complementary. It’s very expensive. Satellites need to be replaced every five, six years,” he said. “Where there is fibre, radio cannot compete with it. Where there is a radio, satellite cannot compete with it. But together all of them… will coexist.”
He said the case for satellite is coverage. There are still “dark spots” in “deep rural hinterlands, in the forests, in the hills, mountains, in the high seas, in the ocean and of course in the air,” he said.
Satellite links would connect a phone user in the mountains with no signal, he added.
