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Comment by Ballu | Hacker News Reader

There is a difference in "avoid selling things until you can provide those things" and "avoid selling things until you are allowed to sell things".

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What's the difference?

You may have the stuff you've invested into production of, and potential buyers willing to give you the money. But if your stuff is illegal to sell, tough luck.

So the real difference is between collecting preorders for something you MAY be able to fulfill in the near term vs something that you may be blocked from selling for an indeterminate amount of time.

Starlink will eventually be legal in India, but it could take decades. In this sense, there's no real difference between "avoid selling things until you can provide those things" and "avoid selling things until you are allowed to sell things". It's just that a normal person has a cutoff point where it becomes an unreasonable wait.

By default, all satellite operators are blocked in India. I haven't checked in last year or 2, you cant even use Garmin emergency devices which are becoming common in west outdoors. To use the satellite phones, you need to apply to the federal gov (called Central gov in India) and you can rent the phone from ministry. Atleast, thats the process for tourist or who are entering India from other countries. There are some changes happened in last 1-2 years, few satellite companies got the lic to provide services, but I am sure all the devices and services are highly regulated.

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