Satcom war a Bond thriller

I love James Bond’s filmy villains as much as the hero. They weren’t small-minded; they dreamt of nothing less than world domination. The small-minded one was 007 himself. The first film set that tone when Dr No feted Bond as an honoured dinner guest, then dismissed him saying, “you’re just a stupid policeman”.

Even as they sought to create global monopolies, Bond’s baddies plotted policies ideologically. They riled against state control, national monopolies, and bureaucratic oversight. Remember how Max Zorin, in a declamation before an assembly of tycoons on board his airship in A View to a Kill, articulated his philosophy of countering national microchip monopolies? Or Elliot Carver spoke against government censorship and state-regulated media in Tomorrow Never Dies? Or Elektra King framed her villainous plot in The World is Not Enough as a rebellion against western state-backed oil monopolies?

Bond films were about wars between men who sought world domination and the defenders of national monopolies. Bond was sent on behalf of the latter—to save the queen, the country and its enterprises from the global biz wizards seeking to knock them out. A war between the global bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, as our commie comrades have been saying since the days of Lenin.

Thus the game is ‘Bond, James Bond’ in the satellite internet war raging over India. The plot is simple. American super tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX wants to extend the services of its satellite internet arm Starlink to India, and most of the world. Starlink uses a massive galaxy of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, circling us just about 500km away. Being closer to the ground, they transmit data much faster than traditional geostationary satellites orbiting about 35,000km away, and enable faster video calls, online gaming, and streaming. They can also take high-speed broadband to remote, hilly, or disaster-stricken areas where fibre-optic cables or cell towers do not reach. Starlink also offers a military-grade sister service with enhanced encryption.

Like Bond villains who want to have their way everywhere, Musk is miffed with Indian authorities who are seeking state control over communications. They want him to share data, keep transmission lines transparent to Indian law-enforcers, and prevent smuggling of terminals into restricted zones. They are also worried that, with its control of a massive share of LEO satellites, Starlink could squeeze out competition and create a tough-to-break infrastructure monopoly in global satellite broadband. In short, Musk could turn out to be what Goldfinger wanted to be in the gold market, or Zorin in the microchip market.

Musk could still have had his way using smooth talk and lobbying as most corporates do. But he blotted his copybook in Ukraine. Starlink had been providing satellite internet service in Ukraine in place of the networks blasted out by Russian missiles and drones. But early this month Starlink imposed a speed limit of 160km/h, disrupting the Ukrainian military’s combat missions, after Musk’s friend and patron Don Trump decided to ditch Ukraine and reach out to Russia.

In simple Bond language, Trump and Musk cosied up to Vladimir Putin and double-crossed Volodymyr Zelensky and his people. India’s worry is: what’s the guarantee that they wouldn’t do the same to us when we attempt another Sindoor?

*****

Though originally set in the Cold War era, the filmy Bond never warred with the communist east. His wars were with lone-ranger renegades, and the KGB often aided the British agent’s endeavours directly or otherwise.

prasannan@theweek.in