Satellite kill switch: Mittal says India must hold it
Mittal says India should hold the satellite kill switch, the power to cut or throttle a network's service, and not depend on a single company for it.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesWho gets to switch off a satellite internet network over India? Mittal says the answer should be India itself, and that the country should not lean on one company for it.
His warning centres on what is called the satellite kill switch. It is the ability to cut off, throttle or restrict a satellite network's service. That can mean a single terminal, a whole region or an entire country, and it is done from the operator's control systems and ground gateways.
What is a satellite kill switch?
It is not a physical button. It is control built into the operator's systems. Whoever runs those control systems and the ground gateways, the stations that link the satellites to networks on Earth, can in principle limit or stop service at any of those levels.
That is why Mittal's point matters. If the control sits with one operator, then access to the service depends on that operator. His argument is that India must hold that power and avoid relying on a single company.
What happens next
The material available does not spell out how such control would be set up or which company he has in mind, so those details are not covered here. What is clear is the position: control over satellite service, down to the level of one terminal, should not rest with a single provider.
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