Telco giant Airtel Tuesday announced a partnership with SpaceX to launch Starlink’s high-speed satellite internet services in India — years after Elon Musk’s company made its first moves to enter the country, the world’s second-largest internet market after China.
Importantly, the deal is not a roll-out plan. Services are subject to SpaceX receiving regulatory clearance from IN-SPACe and the Department of Telecommunications to sell Starlink in the country, the telco said in its press statement (PDF).
That caveat is an important one, since SpaceX has already had its knuckles rapped once before for essentially beginning a service roll out before it had received any license: in 2022, the company ended up having to refund preorders of equipment after the government called it out for “booking/rendering the satellite internet service” before getting the necessary licenses.
It’s understood that SpaceX has yet to get those approvals for multiple reasons, including security and privacy issues, service pricing, and lobbying from local competitors.
Indeed, Airtel’s partnership with SpaceX comes as a blow to billionaire Mukesh Ambani and its network Reliance Jio, which is the country’s biggest telecom and has been looking to restrict Starlink’s entry in the country while scouring to launch its satellite internet services in the country.
Now, it looks like SpaceX is taking a more methodical approach. Today’s development comes on the heels of a partnership signed between India and the U.S., where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump committed to working more closely together. Given Musk’s close involvement with the current U.S. administration, it will be interesting to see if those approvals finally start to materialize.
The financial terms of today’s deal were not disclosed, but plans include Airtel selling Starlink equipment through its retail stores, as well as Starlink services via Airtel to business customers.
Additionally, SpaceX will explore how to “help expand and enhance” the Airtel network, and SpaceX will be able to tap into Airtel’s national ground network infrastructure and other capabilities.
With over 1.4 billion people but only around 950 million internet subscribers, India is a tantalizing market for any company selling a different approach to connectivity.
Apart from full approvals to run services, the Indian government has made several moves that could help line up Starlink’s launch in the country. In late 2023, it passed a new telecom bill that would allow spectrum allocation for satellite services. In 2024, the Modi government backed Starlink in its satellite spectrum auction.
(Interestingly, Airtel is also hedging bets: it also has a tie-up with Eutelsat OneWeb, whose subsidiary OneWeb India was one of the companies receiving approval to launch its satellite-based broadband services in late 2023.)
“Starlink will complement and enhance Airtel’s suite of products to ensure reliable and affordable broadband for our Indian customers – wherever they live and work,” said Gopal Vittal, managing director and vice chairman, Bharti Airtel, in a prepared statement.
“We are excited to work with Airtel and unlock the transformative impact Starlink can bring to the people of India. We are constantly amazed by the incredible and inspiring things that people, businesses and organizations do when they are connected via Starlink,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX.
