Starlink to India: Why after Airtel, Jio signed up Musk too

In a surprising turn of events, two of India’s fiercest telecom rivals, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, announced partnerships with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring Starlink satellite internet services to India on March 11 and 12, 2025, respectively. This development, unfolding within hours of each other, has left industry analysts and consumers alike puzzled, given the history of rivalry between Jio and Airtel, as well as their previous opposition to Starlink’s entry into the Indian market.

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation managed by Starlink Services, LLC, a global telecommunications entity that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American aerospace firm SpaceX. This service offers coverage across more than 100 countries and territories and aspires to deliver worldwide mobile broadband, to understand the unexpected collaboration with which one must delve into the strategic, regulatory and market-driven factors that prompted these telecom giants to join forces with a global disruptor like Musk's satellite internet constellation.

Indian telecom landscape: Battleground of giants

India’s telecommunications sector is one of the most competitive in the world, with nearly 1.2 billion mobile subscribers and some of the lowest data tariffs globally. Reliance Jio, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, disrupted this market in 2016 with its aggressive pricing and rapid rollout of 4G services, quickly ascending to the position of the country’s largest mobile operator by data traffic.

Bharti Airtel, under the leadership of Sunil Bharti Mittal, has been a longstanding player, maintaining a strong presence with its extensive network infrastructure and a focus on both urban and rural connectivity. The rivalry between Jio and Airtel has been marked by price wars, spectrum auctions and relentless efforts to capture market share, often at the expense of profitability.

Given this backdrop, their simultaneous partnerships with Starlink — the satellite internet service that could disrupt their terrestrial broadband dominance — seem counterintuitive. However, a closer look reveals that this move is less about abandoning rivalry and more about adapting to a rapidly evolving digital landscape where satellite technology is poised to play a transformative role.

Starlink’s appeal: Bridging digital divide

Starlink, operated by SpaceX, leverages a constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to deliver high-speed internet with low latency, offering speeds of 25–220 Mbps for downloads and 5–20 Mbps for uploads. Unlike traditional broadband, which relies on fiber optic cables or cellular towers, Musk's satellite internet constellation can provide connectivity to remote and underserved regions where laying infrastructure is either impractical or uneconomical.

In a country like India, where approximately 50% of the population resides in rural areas and internet penetration remains uneven, this technology holds immense promise.

For Jio and Airtel, the appeal of Musk's company lies in its ability to complement their existing services. Jio, despite its massive 5G rollout, faces challenges in reaching remote villages, hilly terrains and island territories like the Andamans. Airtel, too, struggles with similar gaps despite its robust broadband and mobile network. Partnering with Starlink allows both companies to extend their reach without the prohibitive costs of building additional terrestrial infrastructure, aligning with their stated goals of universal connectivity. As Mathew Oommen, Group CEO of Reliance Jio, emphasized, “Ensuring that every Indian, no matter where they live, has access to affordable and high-speed broadband remains Jio’s top priority.” Similarly, Airtel’s Gopal Vittal hailed the partnership as a step toward “seamless broadband connectivity for all.”

Regulatory realities: From opposition to collaboration

The road to this partnership has been anything but smooth. Starlink’s entry into India, first proposed in 2021, faced significant hurdles, primarily around spectrum allocation. In India, terrestrial spectrum is allocated through auctions—a process Jio and Airtel have heavily invested in, spending billions to secure airwaves. When Starlink sought administrative allocation of satellite spectrum (a fee-based system rather than auctions), both telecom giants opposed it, arguing for a level playing field. Jio, in particular, pushed for auctions to ensure fair competition, while Airtel’s Sunil Mittal, speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2024, stressed that satellite providers should face the same regulatory burdens as traditional telecoms.

Elon Musk, frustrated by these demands, publicly clashed with Indian telcos, questioning whether it was “too much trouble” to operate in India. However, the Indian government, under its new telecom law enacted in December 2023, sided with global norms, opting for administrative allocation of satellite spectrum. This decision, finalized in early 2025, shifted the dynamics. With auctions off the table, Jio and Airtel faced a choice: continue resisting Starlink’s entry and risk losing ground to a new entrant, or pivot to collaboration and leverage its technology. They chose the latter.

The partnerships are contingent on SpaceX securing regulatory approvals, including security clearances from the Home Ministry, but aligning with local giants like Jio and Airtel likely smooths this process. These telecoms bring market expertise and compliance with India’s data localization laws, a critical factor for foreign players like Starlink.

Strategic synergies: A win-win proposition

For Jio and Airtel, the partnerships offer distinct strategic advantages. Jio plans to integrate Starlink into its broadband ecosystem, offering it through its vast retail network and online channels while establishing support for installation and activation. This move strengthens Jio’s position as a one-stop shop for connectivity, potentially capturing the satellite broadband market before competitors like Vodafone Idea can respond.

Airtel, meanwhile, sees Starlink as a complement to its existing services, including its partnership with Eutelsat OneWeb, another satellite provider. By bundling Musk's telecom service with its enterprise solutions and rural connectivity initiatives, Airtel aims to enhance its offerings for schools, healthcare centers and businesses.

Starlink, in turn, benefits immensely from these alliances. Entering India—a market with over a billion potential users—is no small feat for a foreign entity. By partnering with Jio and Airtel, Starlink gains access to their extensive distribution networks, customer bases and on-ground infrastructure, bypassing the need to build its own from scratch.

Moreover, these tie-ups mitigate the risk of a price war. While Starlink’s global pricing (around $120/month for residential plans) is far higher than India’s ultra-cheap mobile data (as low as $2/month), collaboration with local players could drive costs down to a more competitive 3,000 rupees ($35), making it viable for Indian consumers.

Market implications: Beyond rivalry

The Jio-Airtel-Starlink alliances signal a shift in India’s telecom narrative—from cutthroat competition to strategic coexistence. While the two remain rivals in the terrestrial space, their convergence on satellite internet reflects a pragmatic acknowledgment that no single player can bridge India’s digital divide alone. This move also positions them ahead of potential competitors, ensuring they retain influence as satellite broadband gains traction.

For consumers, the partnerships promise transformative benefits: faster internet in remote areas, improved disaster management through reliable connectivity and enhanced access to education and telemedicine. However, challenges remain—pricing, scalability and regulatory delays could temper the rollout. Still, as of March 12, 2025, this collaboration marks a pivotal moment, blending global innovation with local expertise to redefine India’s digital future.

New era of connectivity

The tie-ups between Jio, Airtel and Starlink illustrate a rare instance where mutual rivals set aside differences for mutual gain. Driven by the need to expand coverage, navigate regulatory complexities and capitalize on emerging technologies, these partnerships underscore a broader truth: collaboration can be as powerful as competition in the race to connect the unconnected.

As the American company awaits its final approvals, India stands on the cusp of a connectivity revolution—one where its telecom titans and a spacefaring disruptor are, for once, on the same side.