Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service coming to India soon? Jio, Airtel may face competition

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has made his foray into the automobile and space sector and is now reportedly considering stepping into the telecom sector to provide internet services.

The owner of Tesla seems to be planning to revolutionize the Indian telecom market through Starlink, a unique project of his private space company SpaceX. A media report has claimed that SpaceX can introduce satellite-based Internet service in the rapidly growing Indian telecom industry. In the Starlink project, the company can provide internet services to any corner of the world through satellite. On Thursday, SpaceX stated that in just four months since it entered the beta testing phase. The company claims that the service currently has 10,000 active users worldwide.

According to a CNBC-TV18 report, Elon Musk is planning to bring his SpaceX company's Starlink project to India. The initial plan for SpaceX is to enter the Indian telecommunications industry with 100-Mbps satellite-based internet, the report said. It said that Musk is eyeing the USD 1 trillion market of India and China. The company also wants to meet the demand for in-flight internet and maritime services in both countries.

SpaceX, in August last year, already submitted its recommendations to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for a considered push for satellite broadband in the country.

TRAI issued a consultation paper on a roadmap to 'Promote Broadband Connectivity and Enhanced Broadband', in response to which the Vice-President of SpaceX Satellite Government Affairs, Patricia Cooper said that Starlink's high-speed satellite network "will advance the goal of delivering broadband connectivity in the near term to all Indians, particularly those without access now or in the near-term to broadband services traditionally available only to customers in urban and suburban areas".

Cooper also said that this service can provide internet services comfortably even in remote areas of the country.

If the fact that Starlink is coming into the Indian telecom market is true, then surely it will be a matter of concern for BSNL (Bharat Fiber), Airtel (Airtel Extreme) and Reliance Jio (Jio Fiber). Currently, these three companies dominate the mobile Internet and broadband market.