Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms has struck a deal with Elon Musk-led SpaceX to bring Starlink’s broadband internet services to India. The deal marks a departure for the Indian telecom major that was tepid towards Starlink’s entry into India by advocating an auction-based spectrum allocation a few months ago.
The deal with Musk comes a day after Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel signed a similar partnership with SpaceX.
The two back-to-back announcements in the telecom sector marks a first of its kind development in the country’s corporate history wherein two rivals have expressed their willingness to join hands with another rival, albeit international, separately to expand their footprints in an intensely competitive market.
Notably, the partnerships follow the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US where he met Musk and US President Donald Trump, who has been firing fusillades at India because of its “high” and “unfair” tariff on US products. Instead of reacting to these attacks, the Modi government — which has already slashed tariffs on some categories of products — is trying to strike a bilateral trade deal with the US.
Amid questions on whether Musk was offered a red carpet entry into India’s telecom space as part of a larger strategy to extend an olive branch to Trump, the back-to-back deals involving Starlink — provided it gets the necessary statutory clearance — promised to bring a tectonic shift in India’s telecom space.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Mukesh Ambani-owned company said Jio will offer Starlink equipment in retail outlets and online stores and also support customer installation and activation on devices. Jio and SpaceX will also explore how they can boost each other’s offerings.
“Through this agreement, the parties will leverage Jio’s position as the world’s largest mobile operator in terms of data traffic and Starlink’s position as the world’s leading low earth orbit satellite constellation operator to deliver reliable broadband services across the country, including the most rural and remote regions of India,” the statement said.
“Our collaboration with SpaceX to bring Starlink to India strengthens our commitment and marks a transformative step toward seamless broadband connectivity for all,” said Mathew Oommen, group CEO, Reliance Jio.
“We are looking forward to working with Jio and receiving authorisation from the government of India to provide more people, organisations and businesses with access to Starlink’s high-speed internet services,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX.
