Elon Musk says Starlink “would help the least served in India, especially in rural areas”. He is probably right. But the debate in Delhi, over spectrum, price, and security, misses the larger shift his satellites represent. The sky just above us is being divided between two powers, and every country will soon be asked to pick a side. India has faced such a choice before. In 1961, it refused to choose. It should refuse again, and this time lead.AdvertisementLook at what is going up. SpaceX has close to 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit and plans tens of thousands more. China is building two rival networks, Guowang and Qianfan, each designed for well over 10,000 satellites. Amazon is close behind. Within a decade, most of the world’s satellite internet will come from a handful of American and Chinese networks.Why does this matter? Because low orbit is not infinite. A physicist would put it simply. Satellites must keep safe distances from one another, fly at particular heights, and share a limited band of radio frequencies. Under today’s international rules, the best heights and frequencies go largely to whoever claims them first. Those who launch first, keep. Those who come later, ask.Also Read | On H1-B visa issue, read between the lines of US put-down and Indian riposteThe Cold War divided nations by which superpower supplied their weapons. The coming decades may divide them by which superpower supplies their internet. A country that wires its schools, hospitals, banks and armed forces into one network will find it very hard to leave. Switching would mean replacing every dish and every gateway. Dependence gets built into the hardware.AdvertisementIndia’s position here is unusual. It is the largest market Starlink has yet to enter, a space power in its own right, and a voice the Global South listens to. That combination is rare, and it should be used for more than a good tariff.History offers a precedent few remember. In 1976, eight equatorial countries signed the Bogotá Declaration, claiming the geostationary orbit above their territory as their own. The legal claim failed, but the politics worked. Pressure from developing nations pushed the International Telecommunication Union to guarantee every country a slot and frequencies in that orbit, including countries that could not yet launch a satellite. The latecomers were protected by rules, not rockets.Low orbit has no such protection today. India should demand one. What would orbital non-alignment look like in practice? Three steps.First, constellation portability. Indians can carry their mobile number from one company to another. India should likewise require that satellite services sold here use dishes and gateways that can switch between networks. No Indian institution should be locked into one constellation by its hardware. This is easy to demand now, while Starlink still seeks entry. It will be impossible later.Second, a Bogotá for low orbit. India should lead a coalition at the ITU for fair, reserved access to low orbit and its frequencies for countries that cannot yet launch. The developing world won its share of the geostationary arc fifty years ago. It can win a share of the low sky now, but only before that sky is full.Third, a shared sky for the neighbourhood. In 2017, India launched the South Asia Satellite and offered it to its neighbours. That idea should now grow up. ISRO and Indian industry can build a modest network open to partners across South Asia, Africa and the Indian Ocean. It need not match Starlink in size. It only has to ensure that no partner is left with a single choice.None of this means shutting Starlink out. Non-aligned India bought arms from many countries and became dependent on none. It can buy connectivity the same way.The real question before Delhi is not whether to let Musk’s satellites in. It is whether India becomes one more customer of someone else’s sky, or the country that writes fair rules for everyone. In 1961, India stood outside two blocs and gave voice to many. The sky is where that choice will be made again.The writer is a physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States