In talks with satcom operators including Starlink, says Vodafone Idea

Vodafone Idea (Vi) on Wednesday said it was in talks with Elon Musk-owned Starlink and other satellite communication players to expand its services.

 

The announcement comes on the heels of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel signing pacts with the US giant to offer its satellite internet services in India.

 

“The company in ordinary course of business keeps on exploring various initiatives and tie-ups with various parties to enhance the quality of service as also for expansion of the telecom services. The company is in exploratory talks with various satcom providers including Starlink,” Vi informed the exchanges on Wednesday.

 

In an interaction with Business Standard earlier this week, Vi’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Jagbir Singh had said the telco is in conversations with partners and will share an update at an appropriate time.

 

Last week, telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio had announced partnerships with SpaceX, owned by US tech billionaire Elon Musk. Starlink provides satcom services in over a 100 countries through a constellation of over 7000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites operated by SpaceX, the American spacecraft manufacturer, launch service provider and satcom company.

 

These primarily cover the distribution of Starlink equipment and services in India, for Airtel and Jio customers, but have kept options open on further collaboration. They call for exploring how Starlink services can expand and enhance Airtel’s existing network, and evaluate complementary areas of cooperation to leverage Jio and Starlink’s infrastructure.

 

Starlink had applied for a global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) services license in November 2022, and opened pre-booking channels in India in 2021.

 

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already granted Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satellite arm Jio Space Limited the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite Services (GMPCS) licence needed to offer satellite-based broadband services in India.