For a company that has already strung more than 20 ground stations and hundreds of antennas across India, Starlink still cannot sell a single subscription there. That gap between infrastructure and permission is what seems to have provoked Elon Musk on Wednesday, when he accused unnamed "oligarchs" of blocking SpaceX's satellite internet service to protect their "monopolistic chokehold" on the country's market. He offered no names and no evidence, but he called the delay a "crime against the people of India," insisting that Starlink alone could deliver affordable, high-speed internet to those currently without it. India's Ministry of Communications was not persuaded.

Within hours, it issued a statement describing its licensing process as "fair and non-discriminatory," noting that Starlink and two rival satellite operators are all sitting at "broadly the same regulatory stage." Each, the ministry said, must still pass a security assessment before it can even apply for spectrum — the radio frequencies satellites need to transmit signal. This is a market of more than a billion internet subscribers, and the government has shown little appetite for being rushed. The timing is telling.

Musk's outburst came just hours after Lauren Dreyer, Starlink's vice president of business operations, told India Mobile Congress in New Delhi that "we stand ready to serve India," framing the company's ambitions as support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive toward universal connectivity. SpaceX has done much of what regulators asked: it secured approvals, partnered with telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, and hired former Payoneer executive Prabhakar Jayakumar to run its India operations.