Jio, Airtel edgy as Elon Musk plans broadband services in India

Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s satellite broadband arm Starlink aims to start broadband service in India from December 2022, with two lakh active terminals, subject to permission from the government. If launched, the move will hot up the country’s broadband market dominated by Jio and Airtel.

Starlink Country Director for India Sanjay Bhargava said in a LinkedIn post on Friday that the pre-order from India has crossed 5,000, and the company is keen to work in rural areas for providing broadband services.

“Our stretch target is to have 2,00,000 terminals active in India in December 2022. Actual numbers may be much lower than that or even zero if we do not get government approval but it is very unlikely that we will exceed 2,00,000,” Bhargava said.

Starlink is charging a deposit of ₹7,350 or $99 per customer, and claims to deliver data speeds in the range of 50 to 150 megabits per second in the beta stage.

The company will compete with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea in broadband, and it will be a direct competitor to Bharti Group-backed OneWeb.

“A remote area in Goa wanted Starlink. We will be working with rural constituencies who are keen to have 100 per cent broadband. Most of this will be provided by terrestrial broadband, but the hard-to-serve areas will be handled by Satcom providers like Starlink. We look forward to the day a rural constituency in India can declare itself to be 100 percent broadband,” Bhargava said.

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In a pre-order note, Starlink said that its service is available in many countries and it will be easier for it to get government approvals if it has a high number of pre-orders from India.

“The government approval process is complex. So far there is no application pending with the government, so the ball is in our court to apply for consideration which we are working on. Our approach will be to get pilot approval quickly if pan India approval will take longer. We are optimistic that we will get approval for a pilot program or Pan India approval in the next few months,” the note said.

The note also explained uncertainty around the delivery of Starlink services due to a shortage of semiconductor and liquid oxygen.

“The semiconductor shortage has affected the rate at which Starlink kits can be manufactured. There is a shortage of liquid oxygen which is required for the rockets to put more Starlink satellites into space. Global pre-orders have crossed 5,00,000 and around 1,00,000 terminals are active so there is a big global backlog,” the Starlink note said.

PayPal veteran Bhargava joined as the Country Director of Starlink India from October 1. “Have been in India since 2004 and Starlink and I share a common passion for supporting a transformed India starting with Rural India,” he said in his tweet.

“Today is my first day on the job and I thought I would start with why you may want to pre-order Starlink and clarify why the availability date is so uncertain,” Bhargava said in his LinkedIn post.

(With inputs from Agencies)