Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRCSL) has initiated a preliminary engagement with Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, exploring the introduction of high-speed Starlink Internet Services.
The TRCSL has held the first round of discussions with Starlink focusing on regulatory aspects and prerequisites of initiating the service in the near future for Sri Lanka.
“Believe the potential introduction of the service in Sri Lanka would act as a catalyst for specific use cases for example ensuring the success of the Digital Nomad program which requires universal high-speed internet which could be seamlessly in addition to the locally available internet services. traditional services are converging at a rapid pace such as OTT services and believe the next breakthrough would be satellite-based internet services which would change the connectivity landscape globally in the near future,” TRCSL, Director General, Oshada Senanayke said.
Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency broadband internet across the globe. Within each coverage area, orders are fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis Using advanced satellites in a low orbit, Starlink enables video calls, online gaming, streaming, and other high data rate activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet.
Earlier this month, Starlink had registered its business in India under a 100 percent owned subsidiary, Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited. The SpaceX division, had, in a presentation said that it aims to have 200,000 Starlink devices in India by December 2022, 80% of which will be in rural districts. As per the presentation, it had received more than 5,000 pre-orders for its services in India.
Starlink Country Director for India Sanjay Bhargava, in a social media post earlier, had said that the pre-order from India has crossed 5,000 and the company is keen to work in rural areas for providing broadband services.