Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries said it welcomed competition from Elon Musk’s Starlink in India’s satellite internet market, its first public response to a week of attacks by Musk, days before its Jio Platforms unit opens a record $108 billion IPO.
Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla chief, has accused the Indian government and Ambani of stalling Starlink’s launch in a market of more than a billion internet subscribers, where Jio is the biggest mobile operator with over 530 million customers.
“Jio’s own satellite services await clearances,” Reliance said on Friday.
The statement did not name Musk directly. It said it was addressing “recent remarks about Reliance and the Indian market” to “place the facts on record.”