Elon Musk Wears Trump Wings to Fly into India with SpaceX
PM Narendra Modi with Billionaire Elon Musk Image credit X.com
Reliance & Bharti Airtel to Distribute Starlink Services
By S Jha
New Delhi, March 12: Three weeks after billionaire Elon Musk called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s two telecom operators announced plans to distribute Starlink services. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel will rollout Starlink services in India.
Musk had called on Modi during his visit to Washington. “We applaud Jio’s commitment to advancing India’s connectivity,” said Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX.
He said, “We are looking forward to working with Jio and receiving authorization from the Government of India to provide more people, organizations and businesses with access to Starlink’s high-speed internet services.”
Reliance Jio will offer the broadband services of Starlink. Bharti Airtel will distribute the wireless services of Starlink. Incidentally, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel India’s two dominant telecom players. They also invite the charge of being almost a cartel.
“Airtel announces an agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet services to its customers in India. This is the first agreement to be signed in India, which is subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorizations to sell in India,” said Bharti Airtel in a media statement.
The Sunil Mittal-owned telecom operator said that the agreement “enables Airtel and SpaceX to further explore how Starlink can complement and expand Airtel’s offerings, and how Airtel’s expertise in the Indian market complements SpaceX’s direct offerings to consumers and businesses”.
Starlink services entered South Asia recently by becoming operational in Bhutan. Bangladesh has also requested Musk to begin operations in the country. Musk claims that Starlink played a major role in Ukraine War to help Kiev with secure internet connectivity.
Yet, India has not unveiled the policy under which Starlink will operate in the country. It’s also not clear if the government has given or offered any license to SpaceX to operate from India.
The telecom industry in India has seen strong involvement of the government policy. Spectrum auctions helped the operators to gain market share in India. Earlier, spectrums were allocated, which got mired in scams and controversies.
SpaceX offers satellite-backed internet and communication services. Incidentally, there are several Indian companies also which are part of the satellite communication businesses. SpaceX is a US-based private space company. Musk also owns electric vehicle company Tesla.
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