Starlink's tie-ups with Jio, Airtel to reshape India's satellite broadband

Till very recently, Elon Musk’s Starlink was on one side while Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel were on the other when it came to their proposed satellite broadband services in India and allocation of spectrum. Jio and Airtel argued that Starlink, as it is expected to cater to customers in urban areas, can only be given spectrum through the auction route. Contrary to that stand, Starlink was looking at a non-auction route or rather at administered distribution of airwaves. Then suddenly something changed in the new geopolitical setup. 

In a surprise move earlier this week, Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Airtel announced a partnership Musk-led SpaceX to offer the Starlink service in India. OneWeb, where Mittal’s Bharti Group owns a majority stake, is a key player in the same space. Just a day after  Airtel and Starlink came together, Reliance Jio made a similar announce­m­ent with Musk’s firm. The governm­ent approval, mainly related to security issues, to Starlink is awaited. And the government, though decided on administered allocation of spectrum for satellite broadband, is yet to come out with a pricing formula.      

  Mittal, who had said at the Barcelona telecom summit earlier this month that this is no time to fight and that pooling of resources was the only way, reiterated the narrative after the two telcos announced their ventures with Starlink. He said he had been calling  out both telcos and satellite players to work together and bring connectivity to the unconnected. It’s happening now with the new agreements, Mittal said.  

  Yet many said it could be an uneasy friendship. A top executive, who had worked with one of the players, said: “ You face a big risk of shoring up your key rival Starlink even while you compete with them in the same broadband services space wooing the same customers— through fixed wireless access or satellite broadband. There is so much contradiction in the play. We are creating a foreign giant.”  

  To be sure, Starlink has partnered with telcos and broadband players in over 20 odd markets so far. Among others, in Nigeria, it has tied up with broadband company FiberOne for distribution of its satellite services; in Kenya, talks are on with government-owned telco Safaricom; and in Japan, it has signed up with KDDI (for satellite to cell service). In these instances, telcos saw Starlink as complementing their existing  mobile or broadband services. The story is different in the case of Reliance Jio or for that matter Mittal’s OneWeb—they would compete directly with Starlink. 

  Incidentally, the two announcem­ents coincide with India’s negotiations with the US for a trade deal. US president Donald Trump has repeatedly called India a “tariff king”, threatening to impose reciprocal tariffs on several products.

  Elon Musk, a key Trump aide, has waited for long to bring Starlink to India, and the ventures with two top Indian telcos could help him access this market soon. Jio and OneWeb have already secured government approval for the service.  

  According to experts, it will take Starlink at least six months to launch the service after all the government approvals.

  Analysts linked Musk’s victory in India at this point to the country’s market potantial. Consider the fixed wirelsss access (FWA) market, which is in many ways similar to satellite broadband. Counterpoint Research contends that by 2027, India is expected to hit 30 million FWA subscribers (currently there are around 5-6  million), overtaking the US which is currently at 15 million.  These premium customers consume six to ten times more data than mobile players and nearly double of that of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) users too.

  Starlink ended 2024 with 4.6 million subscribers worldwide, nearly a five-fold increase from 2022 end. It expects to hit 20 million by 2030 and generate revenues of $15.8 billion.  

  India could be a key market, depending on Starlink’s strategy and price. Experts pointed out that the company needs to be mindful of that fact that it has two tough competitors—Reliance and Bharti Group—who have played the pricing game successfully to expand the telecom market. The two telcos would not give in easily.  

  Starlink, according to industry watchers, is expected to focus on the premium end of the market in India. A telecom analyst pegged the average revenue generated by FWA customers at anything between ₹500 and ₹1000 a month. Even if Starlink is able to grab a million of these customers, it could hit revenues of up to ₹12,000 crore in a year. By partnering with Jio and Airtel, Starlink will not have to invest substantial money in building its own distribution system in the country. That’s another gain.

As for the pricing game, Jio and Airtel could  replicate their low-cost model, which they have perfected in 4G/5G. Telcos in India are already offering FWA at a base price of ₹399 plus taxes with unlimited data at super high speed. They could do the same in satellite broadband too. And they could also leverage the satellite bandwidth—for backhaul to towers —for expanding capacity to serve the large subscriber base.      

  In contrast, Starlink has to start from the scratch in getting subscribers. But, armed with 7,000 plus satellites constellation, it has large bandwidth capacity over India.

  It could also tap the smaller unconnected or under connected Indian market including rough terrains, remote rural areas, forests, deserts amongst others apart from connecting martime shipping vessels, airlines, just to name a few.

  The GSM Association or GSMA, that represents mobile operators worldwide, has put the unconnected population in India at only 1 per cent. That works out to around 12 million potential consumers. This customer base does not have the cash to buy satellite broadband services until subsidised by the government, believe telcos.

 

Will the latest developments, involving Elon Musk, Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Mukesh Ambani, take connectivity to a new level in India?       

THE SATELLITE BROADBAND SPECTRUM SAGA

  2021: Department of Telecommunications (DoT) sends reference to Trai on details of spectrum bands to be put to auction for space-based communications

  2022: Reliance Jio asks for the auction of satellite broadband spectrum; Sunil Mittal opposes it and wants administrative allocation. Starlink, Kuiper (Amazon) etc, endorse administrative assignment

  2023: Parliament clears the Telecommunications Act 2023, which assigns spectrum for GMPCS license under administrative allocation

  2024: Trai releases consultation paper on spectrum assignment for spacebased communications services after DoT sends a fresh reference

  October 2024: Sunil Mittal changes tack in the Indian Mobile Congress and says those wanting to provide service in urban areas should pay for spectrum like telcos-ending war with Ambanis

  October 2024: Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia responds in IMC, saying spectrum cannot be auctioned as it is shared spectrum according to global standards

  November 2024: Donald Trump elected as president of the USA

  February 2025: Prime minister Narendra Modi meets Elon Musk in the US

 

March 2025: Starlink signs agreements with both Airtel and Reliance Jio to help them distribute their services. It still awaits authorisation to run services from DoT