Elon Musk is reportedly eager to bring his Starlink satellite broadband to India, but his move faces resistance from the Mukesh Ambani-run Indian telecom venture Reliance Jio.
After a meeting with the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US on Tuesday, Musk said he was keen to launch Starlink in India which “can be incredibly helpful” in remote villages that have no internet or lack high-speed services.
However, what he didn’t talk about is how Starlink is at odds with Ambani’s Reliance Jio over the India government’s distribution of satellite broadband spectrum, setting the stage for a battle between two of the world’s richest men for satellite services in the world’s most populous nation, Reuters reported.
Starlink is lobbying India to not auction the spectrum but just assign licences in line with a global trend, saying it is a natural resource that should be shared by companies.
An auction may impose geographical restrictions that will raise costs, it said in company letters made public by the Indian government this month.
Reliance disagrees and has called for an auction in a public submission to the government, saying foreign satellite service providers could offer voice and data services and compete with traditional telecom players, and so there must be an auction to achieve a level playing field.
In signs of deepening rivalry, the Reuters, citing an unnamed industry source, said Reliance will continue nudging the Indian government to auction satellite spectrum, and not agree to the demands of foreign companies.
The stakes are high for Musk. His push comes after a 2021 attempt to launch Starlink in India ran afoul of local regulators for taking bookings without a license, and just as he is in talks with India to set up a Tesla factory.
Reuters said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and Starlink parent SpaceX did not respond to its request for comments, while Reliance referred it to the company’s and Starlink’s government submissions.
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