Billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink received a ‘Letter of Intent’ from the Indian government’s Department of Telecomminications (DoT) on May 7, bringing the service a step closer to Indian customers. Mint was the first to report on the development.
A subsidiary of Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, Starlink comprises a net of multiple satellites situated in the Earth’s atmosphere, that work in concert to provide high-speed internet.
We break down what this step towards Starlink’s entry into India means, what are the next steps, and what the service would likely offer Indian customers.
What is Starlink? What Does it Do?
Starlink is a satellite internet service developed by SpaceX, the American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded in 2002 by Musk.
It provides high-speed, low-latency broadband internet worldwide using satellite technology. Unlike conventional satellite services that rely on distant geostationary satellites, Starlink uses world’s largest low Earth orbit or LEO constellation satellites (550 km above the Earth).
This constellation of LEO satellites — 7,000 now but eventually set to grow to over 40,000 — and its mesh delivers broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, and video calls.
Built to endure extreme cold, heat, hail, heavy rain and even gale, Starlink can stay connected in harsh and severe weather conditions, and in remote topography. It is particularly suited for rural and underserved areas where traditional internet modes like fibre or cable are unavailable or unreliable.
Starlink satellites communicate with ground stations and user terminals to deliver ‘broadband from the skies’.
In doing so, Starlink requires an unobstructed, clear view of the sky, and the user-end kit includes Starlink dish, WiFi router/power supply, cables, and base.
Download speeds typically average between 50 to 150 Mbps, with occasional peaks at 200 Mbps. Most users experience speeds above 100 Mbps. Latency is generally between 20 and 60 milliseconds, which can support gaming and video calls.
Starlink has been on an expansion spree and its footprint is expanding across regions, including North America, Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia, South America, and Africa.
It has often proven vital during natural disasters and conflicts. A case in point is the strategic internet connectivity Starlink provides to war-ravaged Ukraine and its military.
Following the start of the 2022 conflict, Starlink became a virtual lifeline for Ukraine, providing crucial internet access to its people and military when its communications services were destroyed by Russia.
But as the US became increasingly critical of Kyiv’s handling of the war, Musk posted that Starlink was the “backbone of the Ukrainian army” and that “their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off”.
SpaceX offered free access to its Starlink broadband services for areas affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.
Today, Starlink services beam into more than 100 countries, and the company has been eyeing India’s lucrative satellite broadband service market. As per a FICCI-EY report, the India’s space economy is poised to touch a staggering USD 44 billion by 2033 from USD 8.4 billion in 2022.
In the months leading to Starlink inking separate agreements with Airtel and Jio, India’s communications sector — the second largest in the world — had turned into a virtual battleground with telecom operators and satellite firms sparring over how satcom spectrum should be granted.
The high-stakes game saw rivals Jio and Airtel banding together to demand an auction for awarding spectrum for satellite services in India as they feared an administrative allocation would hand Musk airwaves at a price lower than what they had paid via past auctions to set the sprawling terrestrial networks.
During the India Mobile Conference (IMC), Sunil Bharti Mittal advocated for a bidding route and “regular licencing process” for satcom operators who wished to provide services to urban areas and retail customers.
Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, however, rejected telcos’ demand to auction satcom spectrum, making it clear that radiowaves for satcom will be allocated administratively but not without a cost.
The government has also said that Starlink will have to meet the stipulated norms, tick all the checkboxes and comply with all security parameters.
Musk had, at that time, thanked Scindia for not agreeing with Indian telecom tycoons on auctioning spectrum for satellite services and, in a post on X, said he is looking forward to serving Indians.
Even as recently as November 2024, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel had clashed with Starlink during TRAI’s open house discussion — a marathon six-hour talks on etching out the rules of the game for India’s satcom market.
Acrimonious moments, however, gave way to a tranquil resolution, and bitter adversaries soon turned into amicable friends.
In a surprising turn of events in March, Bharti Airtel and then, within hours of it, Jio Platforms announced that they have signed separate deals with SpaceX to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet services to India, subject to the Musk company receiving regulatory approvals.
The commercial terms of the deals are not yet known.
According to a statement released by Airtel on March 11, the Sunil Mittal-owned company and SpaceX will explore offering Starlink equipment in Airtel’s retail stores, Starlink services via Airtel to business customers, opportunities to connect communities, schools, and health centres, among others, in even the most rural parts of India.
By adding Starlink (in addition to its existing alliance with Eutelsat OneWeb) to its arsenal, Airtel hopes to further its ability to offer nationwide connectivity and connect previously underserved areas, particularly those with limited to no coverage today.
A day later, Jio Platforms announced a similar pact. Jio will make Starlink solutions available through its retail outlets as well as through its online storefronts.
Beyond offering Starlink equipment in its retail outlets, Jio will establish a mechanism to support customer service installation and activation.
“Through this agreement, 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, including the most rural and remote regions of India,” Jio said in a release on March 12.
Today, Starlink has over four million subscribers globally and is said to be adding thousands more per week. It has partnered with T-Mobile to provide direct-to-cell satellite coverage on mobiles, initially in remote locations in the US, where there is no mobile coverage.
The T-Mobile Starlink satellite, that have been equated with floating cellphone tower in space, would allow satellite-to-cell service allowing users to stay connected even in areas without traditional network coverage.
Apart from T-Mobile in the US, Starlink has partnered with multiple global telcos: KDDI (Japan), Optus & Telstra (Australia), One NZ (New Zealand), Salt (Switzerland), Entel (Chile & Peru), Rogers (Canada) and Kyivstar (Ukraine).
