Sri Lanka is preparing to roll out Starlink, an innovative satellite-based telecommunications service provider. In an article published in Views Bangladesh on June 2, 2025, LIRNEasia Chair Professor Rohan Samarajiva examined the legal and regulatory dimensions of Starlink’s entry into Sri Lanka. He examined the complexities surrounding the licensing framework, public policy obligations, and the reported absence of clear provisions for lawful interception in the license. He also highlighted the technical and legal challenges posed by the absence of a local gateway, noting that lawful interception would be significantly complicated under such conditions. “News reports claim that the Starlink license does not include provisions on lawful interception. 
Sri Lanka is preparing to roll out Starlink, an innovative satellite-based telecommunications service provider. In an article published in Views Bangladesh on June 2, 2025, LIRNEasia Chair Professor Rohan Samarajiva examined the legal and regulatory dimensions of Starlink’s entry into Sri Lanka. He examined the complexities surrounding the licensing framework, public policy obligations, and the reported absence of clear provisions for lawful interception in the license. He also highlighted the technical and legal challenges posed by the absence of a local gateway, noting that lawful interception would be significantly complicated under such conditions. “News reports claim that the Starlink license does not include provisions on lawful interception.
It is one thing to talk about the second circle of associates in terms of lawful interception, as we did in our bulk surveillance paper that will be out of review shortly. It is quite something else to see how many records are actually yielded by surveillance of a relatively small number of targets. In 2017, 543 million records were collected from surveillance of just 40 people. In 2016, the first full year for which that replacement system was in operation, the government obtained orders to target 42 people and collected just over 151 million call detail records. In 2017, the government obtained orders for 40 targets.
Linnet Taylor correctly points out that US case law does not have applicability outside the US. However, the third-party doctrine set out in the Smith v Maryland case differentiated between transaction-generated data on a telecom network and the content of what was communicated. Now there’s likely to be a different governing precedent, for those under US law: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether the government needs a warrant to obtain information from cellphone companies showing their customers’ locations. The Supreme Court has limited the government’s ability to use GPS devices to track suspects’ movements, and it has required a warrant to search cellphones. The new case, Carpenter v.
Telenor Myanmar has reported how many lawful intercept requests ity received in the first six months of operation: On the institutional side, the government still lacks the skills, process and willingness to make decisions, Furberg said, which can lead to delays. “Corruption is still very high on our agenda,” he said, admitting that Telenor Myanmar has received one claim of corruption in its supply chain that it investigated but was unable to prove. Telenor also has to tread carefully when law enforcement make requests for historical usage data about its customers to ensure it strikes the right balance between crime prevention and privacy. “We can’t hand out information without a court order,” Furberg said, but at the moment it is not always clear which courts in Myanmar handle these cases. So far, Telenor has received 15 requests for historical usage data and has complied with three, he said, which were linked with drug offences and missing persons.