Elon Musk-led Starlink’s India operations head Sanjay Bhargava has resigned from his position. This move comes a week after DoT said that it has no license to provide internet and asked the public not to opt for its services.
“I have stepped down as Country Director and Chairman of the Board of Starlink India for personal reasons… my last working day was December 31, 2021. I will have no comments…,” Bhargava said in the LinkedIn post. However, Bhargava did not reply to any of the questions sent to him about the resignation.
Bhargava joined Starlink last year in October. Earlier, he worked with Musk and founded Paypal, which is an electronic payment firm.
For the unaware, the Department of Telecommunication has also asked Starlink to refund all money from the deposits of the pre-booking. In fact, the company has started sending emails to customers for the refund of the pre-booking.
Starlink Refund Plans
Similarly, ET reported that that the company is in the process of refunding. The report also claims that somebody from the company has also met the ministry. Besides, DoT officials said that Starlink is in the process of applying for the license.
“We want to ensure we welcome investments into the country, so refund, make your applications, get your clearances and then please do what you want to,” the department official was quoted by ET. Notably, the company has informed its 7000 customers about the uncertainty of broadband internet services in India.
“We have been directed by India’s DoT to refund pre-orders until we are licensed,” the company said. It added that “unfortunately, the timeline for receiving licenses to operate is currently unknown, and there are several issues that must be resolved within the licensing framework to allow us to operate Starlink in India”.
It is important to note that the company pointed out that customers who have opted for the services are allowed to log in to their account and ask for cancellation or request a refund, which will be issued immediately. The company announced this procedure after DoT said that they need a license and necessary authorization before starting pre-booking process.
