NEW DELHI: Expressing his happiness on his ‘moral’ victory over Indian telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Starlink, on Wednesday appreciated the government’s decision to allocate satellite spectrum administratively to satellite communication players.
“Much appreciated! We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink,” said Musk, in its social media post X. Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified on Tuesday that India would go for administrative allocation, aligning with global practices amid demand from Indian telecom operators, particularly Reliance Jio, to go for the auction route of allocation. Musk and Amazon’s Project Kuiper have been advocating administrative allocation of Satcom spectrum.
Currently, there are two players, OneWeb and Jio-SES, with satellite communication licenses in India. Starlink and Amazon have applied for licences but await government approval. Musk criticised, and called the demand of telcos like Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea ‘unprecedented’ to go for auction route.
He emphasised that the spectrum was designated by the ITU as a shared spectrum for satellites. “That would be unprecedented, as this spectrum was long designated by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) as shared spectrum for satellites,” Musk wrote.
Musk urged TRAI for a fair decision and encouraged competition for the benefit of Indian consumers. In a reply of a tweet posted by Dogedesigner, which reads: Musk says he will call and ask if it would not be too much trouble to allow Starlink to compete to provide Internet services to the people of India, the owner of Starlink replied that it would be much appreciated.
Musk took a dig at Jio promoter Mukesh Ambani by reacting to a post on X that suggested Ambani’s fear of Starlink’s entry disrupting his telecom empire. Musk said he would call and ask if it would be too much trouble to allow Starlink into the Indian market. “I will call and ask if it would not be too much trouble to allow Starlink to compete to provide Internet services to the people of India,” said Musk in a tweet.
This is the second attempt by Starlink to enter the market. In 2022, it began pre-bookings before obtaining regulatory approvals from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Subsequently, DoT forced Starlink to refund pre-booking amounts and seek a licence first. As per an EY-ISpA report, India’s space economy is projected to expand to $13 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 6% from nearly $9.6 billion in 2020.