Reliance Industries Ltd pushed back against suggestions that it is trying to keep Elon Musk’s Starlink out of India, saying its own satellite venture is still awaiting regulatory clearances.
In a post on X, a social media platform owned by Musk, Mukesh Ambani led RIL said it never ‘feared competition’ and welcomed operators in satellite communication, including Starlink.
“We welcome competition in satellite communications, including Starlink. Every player, Jio included, must serve the people of India and abide by the laws and policies of the land,” it said in the post.
Last week, Elon Musk took to X taking swipe at Ambani, asking if he’s the ‘real boss’ of India. Following up, Musk later described Ambani as the ‘Prime Minister of India’, as he fretted over delay in getting permission from the Modi government to launch satcom operations and blamed it on Indian telecom ‘oligarchs’.
Earlier this week, Airtel boss Sunil Bharti Mittal said it also was awaiting government clearance for the satcom venture, having applied years before Starlink and argued Bharti should get the permission ahead of Musk.
The ministry of communication had last week said three companies are broadly at a similar stage in the approval process. The applicants are Starlink, Jio and Bharti backed Eutelsat. It denied that the process was ‘discriminatory’ calling such a notion ‘baseless’ and ‘misconceived’.
Less than a week to go before launching the record-breaking IPO for telecom subsidiary Jio Platforms, RIL said Jio’s own satellite services also await clearance.
The company reminded that how over a decade, Jio built a subscriber base of 53 crore, beating competition. “Jio itself entered India’s crowded telecom market in 2016 as the newest player, with not a single customer. In just 10 years, Jio has earned the trust of over 530 million customers and given Indians some of the best digital infrastructure and most affordable data in the world,” it said.
In the final offer document, JPL explained why it thinks satcom may not make a big dent in the Indian market which is one of world’s fastest growing fixed broadband networks with 1.2 million subscriber additions per month.
“Satellite-based connectivity is unlikely to scale significantly in India’s mainstream digital connectivity landscape, primarily because of rapidly strengthening FWA (fixed wireless access) deployment that offers fibre-like performance with relatively low installation and usage costs for consumers,” JPL said in offer document.
It argued that satellite technology is not likely to be able to compete with FWA on pricing.
“For example, Starlink’s entry level fixed broadband plans in the USA are priced at ₹4,800 ($55) per month, and in most African countries are priced at ₹2500-4500 ($28-50) per month,” it said. Average broadband user in India pays around ₹600 odd a month.
Jio, however, said satellite could remain relevant for specialised use cases in remote or hard-to-reach locations where terrestrial roll-out is challenging.