he two top telecom companies in India, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, have each partnered with Space X to bring Starlink’s high-speed satellite internet service to the country.
Bharti Airtel announced last week its official partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink to provide broadband services to users in India. Later that day, Jio Platforms, which is known to be India’s largest telecom operator and is part of Reliance Industries, also revealed that they signed a similar deal with Starlink.
Starlink has been seeking to enter multiple Asian markets, such as the Indian and Indonesian market. However, in India, it has yet to overcome certain regulatory challenges. At first, both Jio Platforms and Airtel have been against integrating Starlink into their operations – especially in the context of spectrum allocation.
While the Indian government were pushing for an administrative approach, Jio advocated for an auction-based method and follow other global practices. The chairman of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal, also explained the urgency for a level playing field, suggesting that companies like Starlink should pay licence fees and even buy spectrum.
In response, Elon Musk described such decisions are “unprecedented”, expressing that the process of obtaining approval to operate in India was “too much trouble”.
Despite these reservations, Starlink has successfully teamed up with both Jio Platforms and Airtel. While the competition was already fierce between these two companies, these new alliances are set to intensify the rivalry even further – not only when it comes to traditional broadband, but also within the satellite internet market.
“By integrating Starlink into Jio’s broadband ecosystem, we are expanding our reach and enhancing the reliability and accessibility of highspeed broadband in this AI-driven era, empowering communities and businesses across the country.” – stated Mathew Oomen, the Reliance Jio’s Group CEO.
With these new partnerships, it’s going to be interesting to watch how Jio and Airtel navigate their roles in the satellite internet market. With the help from Starlink, the dynamics between traditional broadband and satellite services will likely heat up, altering the entire landscape of connectivity in India.
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Right now, all parties seem to be having the same purpose.
“We are looking forward to working with Jio and receiving authorization from the Government of India to provide more people, organizations and businesses with access to Starlink’s highspeed internet services.” – stated Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer at SpaceX in their announcement.
