New Delhi:

India’s internet and telecom sector is likely to get a new entrant – Elon Musk’s Starlink – a game-changer for internet users in the world’s most populous country. Elon Musk will be taking on behemoths like Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel besides national carrier BSNL to provide ultra-high speed connectivity to Indian users.

Whether or not he will be able to match Jio and Airtel on pricing is yet to be seen. India currently has the world’s lowest pricing in terms of broadband and WiFi internet. Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest person, may aim to compete aggressively in the world’s most vibrant internet data market.

Starlink, which provides wireless internet service with the help satellite constellations in near-Earth orbit, is currently seeking the required security clearances for a licence to offer satellite broadband services in India and is expected to get a permit should it satisfy authorities of the conditions laid out, the telecom minister said today.

Starlink has been looking to enter India for years and its plans got a major boost last month when New Delhi said it wouldn’t auction spectrum for satellite broadband but rather award it administratively – just as Elon Musk wanted. Rival Indian telecom billionaire Mukesh Ambani had wanted an auction.

India’s Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia confirmed today that Starlink is in the process of obtaining the necessary security clearance, which requires it to satisfy the Government of India that the company processes and stores all data locally in India, and that its satellite signals are encrypted and 100 per cent secure.

“When you check all the boxes, you get the licence. If they (Starlink) do that, we will be very happy,” Mr Scindia said.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio currently dominates India’s broadband market with more than 14 million wired subscribers. Jio also has a user base of nearly 500 million mobile internet users. Airtel too has close to 300 million broadband subscribers. However, they are concerned that after spending more than 20 billion dollars in spectrum auctions, they now have the risk of losing customers to Elon Musk’s Starlink as satellite technology advances.

As per a Reuters report, Reliance Jio already has the necessary clearances to launch its own satellite broadband service, but hasn’t done so yet. Starlink has now informed the Government of India that it is willing to comply with India’s rules and regulations for security, data storage, and servers.

When Reliance Jio had first launched services, Mukesh Ambani, then Asia’s richest person, had offered broadband services for free to all subscribers to capture a majority market share. Elon Musk, who is the world’s richest person is now adopting a similar strategy – In Africa, Musk offers Starlink services for as little as $10 (roughly Rs 800) per month. In the US, Musk offers the same Starlink service for as much as $120 (roughly Rs 10,000) per month.
 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Elon Musk-founded SpaceX Corp. has sent a cease-and-desist notice to the B2B sales listings platform IndiaMART for unauthorised listings of consumer terminals of its Starlink satellite internet system, the company said in an email. The company also said it notified the Indian government about the listings, and clarified that these were not authorised resellers. 

The move comes after The Hindu reported last week that even as the firm awaits a Global Mobile Personal Communication System (GMPCS) authorisation in India, some businesses have started advertising the product, in a possible security risk.

Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, said in a reply on X to The Hindu’s earlier story that “[t]here are many fake resellers of @starlink terminals, such as those on @IndiaMART,” urging consumers to not be “duped” by fake listings.

However, in its email to The Hindu, SpaceX was careful to not rule out that the listings, while unauthorised, could be legitimate: the company said that it had reached out to IndiaMART about users “falsely claiming to or attempting to illegally sell” Starlink equipment online.

A spokesperson for IndiaMART had told The Hindu last week that it does not publish listings on its website on its own, or facilitate transactions; the firm says it only facilitates advertisements by sellers, connecting them with buyers. The spokesperson did not have an immediate comment late Tuesday evening on SpaceX’s cease and desist letter.