If you can’t beat them, join them”—words India’s largest telecom companies are now being forced to live by.
It’s rare for India’s corporate giants to find somebody they can’t beat in the country, coddled as they are by the government. But this is exactly what Bharti Airtel and Jio have faced in the satellite communications space, with the government siding with Elon Musk’s SpaceX—and its Starlink communications system—despite their strident protests.
Now, having failed to beat Starlink or stymie its entry into India, both Airtel and Jio have joined hands with Musk’s company. But the Indian government isn’t convinced. There are significant security concerns with such satellite communication services, after all. License approvals are also a significant bargaining chip to use during trade tariff negotiations with the US.
That’s why Starlink’s tie-up with Airtel and Jio is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
On Tuesday, Airtel announced its partnership with SpaceX “to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet services to its customers in India”. According to the release by the company, Airtel and SpaceX will look to make Starlink equipment available at Airtel’s stores — potentially available to anybody who wants to buy it — and will make the satellite communication services available to Airtel’s business customers.
The release also touched upon the key promise of satellite communication, which is to bring connectivity to “even the most rural parts of India”.
A day later, Jio Platforms announced its own deal with SpaceX. The aims, objectives and game plan laid out by Jio were largely the same as Airtel’s— availability at retail stores and taking internet to India’s remote areas.
“Ensuring that every Indian, no matter where they live, has access to affordable and high-speed broadband remains Jio’s top priority,” Mathew Oommen, Group CEO of Reliance Jio said.
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‘The new 3M’
These two announcements are particularly significant because preventing the entry of Starlink in India had been one of those rare issues on which rivals Airtel and Jio agreed. In October 2024, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified that spectrum for satellite communication services would be allocated administratively rather than through auction.
While Musk welcomed this news at the time, Jio’s Mukesh Ambani and Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal had both voiced their dissent. Ambani wrote a letter to Scindia advocating in favour of an auction for satellite spectrum, and Mittal argued, “They (SpaceX) need to buy the spectrum just as telecom companies buy. They need to pay the licence fees and also secure their networks like telecom companies do.”
Yet, once it became clear that the government was not changing its stance on how the licensing would be done, it looks like both Jio and Airtel are accepting that joining hands with SpaceX is the only way forward.
Soon after the back-to-back announcements, the Congress took to social media to target the government over these partnerships.
“It is abundantly clear that these partnerships have been orchestrated by none other than the PM himself to buy goodwill with President Trump through Starlink’s owner Mr. Elon Musk,” Congress Member of Parliament Jairam Ramesh posted on X, which is incidentally another company owned by Musk.
RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka had his own take: “The old 3M made its mark with Post-its. The new 3M—Musk, Mittal & Mukesh—are sticking together for Indian dominance.”
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National security risks
Both the Jio and Airtel releases mentioned upfront that their respective deals were subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorisations to sell Starlink in India. But national security isn’t an insignificant matter.
The government of India has valid reason to be concerned about the national security implications of allowing satellite communications, especially by a foreign company. In December 2024, the Indian Army seized a Starlink device in strife-ridden Manipur, raising alarms that militant groups could be using such devices to circumvent internet restrictions imposed by the government.
This wasn’t a one-off either. Earlier in December, it was reported that the Andaman police had issued a notice to SpaceX seeking details of who purchased a Starlink device allegedly recovered from a huge drug bust.
Finally, the government’s decision to administratively allocate the spectrum and strictly control the licensing process also gives it the power to use Starlink’s India entry as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Musk’s buddy US President Trump.
Trump is pushing India to lower its import tariffs and India is looking for its own negotiation tools. Market access is a big one, and Musk’s proximity to Trump makes this particular issue that much more significant.
The Indian license is also of particular interest to Musk. It will not only give him access to a huge new market, but this new profitable route would come at a time when his other company, Tesla, lost $29 billion in a single day in market capitalisation, driven by the company’s struggles in an increasingly competitive EV market.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
My understanding, as a lay person, is that this satellite broadband will be delivered to remote areas, where optic fibre or normal wireless broadband do not reach. Not a lucrative market in the conventional sense. Our broadband prices, also reflected in the Average Revenue per User, are amongst the lowest in the world. 2. As a principle, one welcomes the world’s top firms being invited in. That is good for both the economy and ordinary consumers.
Letting Starlink in is a security threat. But under the current circumstances this has to be managed. But the question I have for the Indian telecom companies. Why are you happy doing business and competing only in India. Go to Europe and America and take on the local players there???
What happened to Airtel’s Oneweb program?
Oneweb was pitched as a competitor to Starlink. In fact, Oneweb predates Starlink and was initially being promoted by Softbank.
These Indian companies are just not interested in investing in research and development. All they do is sign agreements with foreign companies. Indigenous development of technology is an alien concept for them.
The telecom 2G spectrum scam raised by CAG of that time was the major cause why the UPA-II government was ousted. But note that auction was diligently followed then. Now the current BJP stopped using auction and can give the spectrum to anybody they feel right. Our sold-out media kept mum. Now that GOI decided to give it Star Link, spineless media has nothing to do except seeing a big news in India’s top two telecom companies playing slaves to Star Link. The PM has made everything about as his personal ego. So for his “dear friend Trump” Modi is hell bent to be on his good side. So Modi finds no issue in selling India’s communications to Star Link without thinking about National Security. Ukraine is completely dependent on Star Link and when Trump got angry with Zelensky, Musk stopped Star Link services which disabled Ukrainian military to a large extent. God help India.