- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The deals by Airtel and Jio come weeks after prime minister Narendra Modi met Musk in Washington during his US visit
By: India Weekly
IN A surprise move, Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio Platforms struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring Starlink’s satellite broadband internet services to India.
This follows months of bickering between the Indian billionaire and Musk over the allocation of spectrum rights.
The deal with Musk – considered the right-hand-man of US president Donald Trump – comes a day after Ambani’s Indian rival Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel signed a similar partnership deal with SpaceX.
Over the past few months, rivals Jio and Airtel had come together to demand an auction for awarding spectrum for satellite services in India.
However, the Narendra Modi administration sided with Musk, who wanted it to be allocated administratively, in line with global trends.
The Indian players feared an administrative allocation would give Musk airwaves at a price lower than what they had paid via auctions in the past.
This agreement “is subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorisations to sell Starlink in India”, Jio Platforms said in a statement on Wednesday (12).
Jio will offer Starlink equipment in retail outlets and online stores and also support customer installation and activation on devices.
Jio and SpaceX will also explore how they can boost each other’s offerings.
“The parties will leverage Jio’s position as the world’s largest mobile operator in terms of data traffic and Starlink’s position as the world’s leading low earth orbit satellite constellation operator to deliver reliable broadband services across the country,” the statement said.
Starlink is the world’s largest low-earth-orbit constellation operated by SpaceX.
On Tuesday, Bharti Airtel announced that it is entering into an agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink’s high-speed Internet service to India on a non-exclusive basis.
Bharti already partners with Eutelsat OneWeb, the second-largest LEO constellation.
Similarly, Jio Platforms has a joint venture with SES, a leading global satellite-based content connectivity solutions provider.
The deals by Airtel and Jio come weeks after prime minister Narendra Modi met Musk in Washington during his US visit.
Ambani was one of the select few invitees at the Trump’s oath-taking ceremony in January.
Musk-owned Starlink is awaiting regulatory approvals to launch its services in India.
“The (Starlink-Jio) deal creates a business modality for Starlink to make government approvals easier,” said Chaitanya Giri, Space Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
In India, approximately 400 million people lack full-fledged internet connections. (Agencies)
