Starlink’s services in India have to be affordable for more people, and competition would benefit the customer even though it would mean Reliance Jio would make less money “but won’t go out of business”, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Days ahead of Jio’s expected initial public offering (IPO), likely to be India’s largest, potentially valuing Jio at over $100 billion, Musk took yet another shot at the Reliance group as he called it a “de facto monopoly in India”.
“The ridiculous arguments by Ambani’s army of Internet shills make no sense. On the one hand, they say Starlink couldn’t possibly compete with the amazing low prices offered by Ambani’s de facto monopoly in India and then, in the same breath, they essentially claim that Starlink would be too strong of a competitor! This is absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole,” he said in a post in early hours of Sunday (India time) on social media platform X, which he owns, in response to several posts from users who, he alleged, were supporters of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
RIL did not respond to Musk’s comments till Sunday evening.
“The reality is that competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, as it always does. Ambani’s profits will be lower, but he is not going out of business. And, obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable,” he added.
Also Read
His comments follow a series of posts questioning the delays in approval to Starlink’s services in India while also alleging that certain business conglomerates, subsequently naming the Reliance group, were blocking Starlink’s India entry.
On Saturday, Musk had posted, “Dear Prime Minister Ambani, please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India. Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?”
He said Starlink could benefit users, including small businesses and children’s education, in areas of India that did not have internet access, while also being useful in saving lives during natural disasters when other communication systems went down.
Musk’s allegations drew sharp criticism.
Nishikant Dubey, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said in response to Musk's post that the government was aware of the challenges (through Starlink) facing the country’s security agencies since 2013-14, and the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and investigation agencies were being affected by the dangerous games of these threats.
“First, provide connections to the poor in your own country, America, at affordable rates, and then level accusations—India is a healthy democratic, sovereign nation; it does not change its security policy under pressure or social media,” he said.
Former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said that India could and should challenge Musk’s monopoly in space-based communications, using the $145 billion in the USO (Universal Service Obligation) fund. “This should now be utilised to help Indian telecom network providers like @airtelindia and @reliancejio to urgently put up their satellite networks to compete with @elonmusk Starlink. This will be far better use than wait indefinitely for BSNL to develop the required capacity for achieving universal coverage. India can and should challenge Musk’s monopoly in space based communications,” he said in a post on X, on Sunday.
Bharti group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb (now Eutelsat Group) and Jio Satellite Communications, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio, have been awarded the licence but those await security clearances. Starlink received its last approval in 2025, while Eutelsat and Jio received theirs earlier.
Jio is separately building its low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, which will rival that of global players like Starlink and Amazon Leo.
The government has refuted Musk’s claims, stating last week that all satellite broadband providers had to comply with security norms to operate in India. The communications ministry said that the country’s authorisation framework for telecom and satellite services was “fair and non-discriminatory” and that any suggestion that it was being applied selectively was “baseless and misconceived”.
Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia “set the record straight” on Friday, saying that India did not allow a monopoly in any sector, including satcom, and that licences had been given to all three companies — Reliance Jio, OneWeb, and Starlink — that had applied. A fourth entity interested in entering India — Amazon Leo — will also have to go through the same process. Security clearances are being examined by Ministry of Home Affairs, which will also issue the final clearances, he added. Scindia added that the government was holding discussion with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the pricing of satellite spectrum and once all the entities fulfilled or complied with the security conditions, they could start operating.