Starlink Joins Hands With UIDAI For Aadhaar-Based Customer Verification

Elon Musk-led satcom operator Starlink has joined hands with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to leverage Aadhaar for customer verification.

In a statement today, the IT ministry (MeitY) said that Starlink has been appointed as a “sub-authentication user agency” (sub-AUA) and “sub-eKYC user agency”.

For context, sub-AUA is a secondary agency that relies on a primary AUA to connect to the UIDAI’s central data repository for authentication purposes. On similar lines, eKYC user agency is used to do online verification via Aadhaar data.

“Starlink’s onboarding with Aadhaar authentication signifies a powerful synergy: India’s trusted digital identity joining hands with global satellite technology. Aadhaar e-KYC will facilitate the onboarding of users seamlessly, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements while delivering high-speed internet to households, businesses, and institutions…” MeitY said in the statement.

The ministry underscored that the authentication by users will happen only on a voluntary basis as per the existing rules. It also said that the partnership will enable Starlink to onboard users in a quick, paperless, and compliant manner.

The partnership agreement was signed in New Delhi in the presence of UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar and Starlink India director Parnil Urdhwareshe.

The development comes a month after the US-based company received the final authorisation from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to commence commercial operations in the country.

However, Starlink still needs to acquire satcom spectrum, set up ground infrastructure, and demonstrate through testing and trials that it meets the security rules it has signed up for. Notably, spectrum allocation rules are yet to be formalised.

Meanwhile, Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, minister of state (MoS) for communications, said earlier this month that Starlink had agreed to store the network data, traffic and other details locally in India.

That said, the US-based company is the third satcom operator, after Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio-SES, to secure all clearances for offering satellite internet services in India. Besides, Global giants like Amazon Kuiper and Apple vendor Globalstar have filed applications to acquire satcom licences in the country.

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