Banglalink, the Bangladeshi arm of VEON, launched Starlink-powered direct-to-cell service on 6 October 2026, after approval from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in September. Bangladesh is the first South Asian country to offer it. Starlink's own post said "Starlink Mobile is now available in Bangladesh with Banglalink," according to The Week. The service handles messaging, location sharing and selected apps on ordinary 4G phones with a Banglalink SIM. It is aimed at coastal areas, the Exclusive Economic Zone and outages after disasters. It is bundled free at launch, with five free satellite SMS a month. Full data service still needs further regulatory sign-off.
The launch is worth studying less for the technology than for the sequence of regulatory decisions that made it possible.
The strongest case for caution
The case for slow, heavy scrutiny of satellite services is serious. A direct-to-cell service connects handsets to orbiting transmitters. That raises questions a terrestrial licence never faced: how satellite spectrum coexists with terrestrial mobile spectrum, where the service may operate, and how traffic is routed and monitored. The Financial Express reported in August 2026 that regulators still had to decide how direct-to-cell would use spectrum, where it could operate, and how it would interact with existing terrestrial networks. A regulator that waves through a foreign-operated constellation without answers risks interference and weak consumer protection. In a country with a history of internet shutdowns, it also risks leaving state security agencies without visibility they consider necessary.
What the BTRC actually did
The BTRC did not improvise. It issued its NGSO satellite licensing guidelines in March 2025. Prothom Alo reported that they were issued on 26 March 2025 and provide for 10-year licences with a minimum five-year operating commitment. They require at least one gateway inside Bangladesh and no revenue share for two years, then 3% from year three, rising to 5.5% from year six. Starlink Services Bangladesh Ltd applied on 7 April 2025, and the Daily Star reported that a seven-member BTRC committee recommended the licence after checking its documents. The regulator then sought the telecom ministry's pre-approval, which the telecom law requires.
Direct-to-cell was then handled as a staged extension of that framework rather than a new licensing fight. The government approved a two-month proof of concept beginning in May 2026, observed by BTRC officials. Banglalink asked for commercial approval in a letter reported on 19 August 2026. It proposed starting with SMS and light data and leaving other data services for later approval. Approval followed in September, and the launch came in October.
The pace is the point. India, by contrast, has still not given Starlink its licence: The Week reports that the government says security compliance is ongoing and that Starlink is still waiting for spectrum assignment. A published rulebook, a named applicant and a time-limited trial let Bangladesh reach a commercial decision with conditions attached. The conditions, including the staged scope, are a more proportionate tool than a blanket delay.
Why the staged scope is sensible
Launching with messaging and a small free allowance is a reasonable way to find out what happens when satellite signals meet a busy terrestrial network. The service is not a broadband substitute. It needs a clear view of the sky and is meant for dead zones: seas, islands, hill tracts and areas hit by cyclones, floods or power cuts. The BTRC reported 3,469 satellite internet subscribers as of January 2026, per The Week, so the dish-based market is still small. Direct-to-cell reaches people who will never buy a dish, such as fishers beyond the coast and residents of flood-hit districts. For them, one working text message can matter a great deal.
The staged approach also keeps the harder decisions open. Full data service requires further sign-off, and that review is the right place to settle spectrum coordination and consumer terms. Regulators should publish the criteria for that review. They should also say how long it will take, so that a staged rollout does not become an open-ended limbo.
The unresolved issue: interception
The NGSO guidelines are not only a licensing story. Prothom Alo reports that Article 26(4) allows lawful interception: the licensee must give a designated national agency access to its Bangladesh gateway and supply information to the lawful interception system. It must also provide information to identify people who may pose a threat to national security. Those obligations sit uneasily with the current reform debate. On 28 July 2026, Access Now, Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, Human Rights Watch and others urged Bangladesh's government to place all interception under prior authorisation by an independent judicial authority, and to put surveillance powers in primary legislation with parliamentary oversight.
That is the proportionate standard, and it applies to satellite networks as much as to terrestrial ones. A pro-innovation regulator can welcome new connectivity and still insist that access to the gateway is warrant-based, logged and reviewable. Security agencies have a legitimate interest in knowing who uses a network. The answer is a published legal process, not open-ended access written into a licensing guideline.
What to watch
Three things will show whether this was good regulation or good luck. First, the criteria and timeline for approving data service. Second, whether the BTRC publishes how spectrum for direct-to-cell is coordinated with terrestrial operators. Third, whether interception obligations are tied to judicial authorisation as the reform agenda develops. If all three are handled openly, Bangladesh will have shown that a developing market can license frontier connectivity quickly without trading away safeguards. If they are not, the launch will be remembered as speed without accountability.