India must hold the “kill switch” for satellite communications operating on its soil, Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has said, warning against dependence on a single foreign provider. The satellite 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. “The kill switch, as we call it, should not be sitting somewhere else. India must have control over its own space destiny,” Mittal said in an interview with PTI marking the 50th year of Bharti Enterprises.
Mittal said India should not lean on a single provider for critical communications infrastructure. “Importantly, it may need to have different players. You can’t just depend on one country or one company,” he said. He said the satellite kill switch must sit in India, not with a foreign operator, and that India must also ensure “the security of the apparatus, of the equipment, the communications coming down into the ground to be monitored” and that “everything should be routed through India” via domestic ground gateways, rather than bypassing local oversight.
Why the satellite kill switch matters
In satellite broadband, user terminals connect to satellites, which relay traffic to ground stations and then to the internet, so whoever runs the control and gateway systems can in principle disable users or reroute their data. Governments see the satellite kill switch 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. 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.
Mittal pointed to Ukraine, saying “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 and disrupting military operations. Those restrictions left some Ukrainian strike and interceptor drones virtually unusable. The satellite kill switch matters in Ukraine because control of the network has already affected military operations there. Mittal said 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. There India will need to have guardrails. It’ll need to secure itself.”
Three operators wait for clearance
Three companies hold satellite communications licences in India: Jio Satellite Communications, Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Elon Musk’s Starlink. All three hold provisional spectrum and are at a similar stage, the government has said, and final launch depends on security clearance from the Home Ministry. The satellite kill switch is among the security conditions the government is weighing as it decides when satellite broadband can go live. The debate over the satellite kill switch comes as Starlink waits for clearance to start services in India.
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.” Mittal said OneWeb was 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.”
Satellite kill switch and the wider market
Mittal said the European Union is spending 14 to 15 billion euros on a secure European communications network through Eutelsat OneWeb, and that this has drawn attention to the company as the satellite kill switch debate continues. On the spectrum debate, he 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 that the regulators understand the debate.
Mittal tied the satellite kill switch to a wider point: India must control its own communications infrastructure rather than depend on a single foreign company. 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, with dark spots still in deep rural hinterlands, in the forests, in the hills and mountains, in the high seas and in the air.