Satellite Internet: Airtel Announces Agreement with Starlink, but its Services Still Far Off
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 11: Bharti Airtel Limited on Tuesday announced signing of a distribution agreement with the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet firm Starlink but its services in India will still be a far cry till it receives clearance from the government.
For the Bharti Airtel, the agreement is a major breakthrough but the global internet networking Starlink will not be able to offer its services and will need to get necessary authorisations from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Home Affairs before it can commence operations in India.
The Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had stated earlier that any decision on the launch of Starlink services in India would depend on the recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which will not easily be forthcoming particularly in view of strong opposition from the Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio Infocomm.
“Airtel and SpaceX will explore offering Starlink equipment in Airtel’s retail stores, Starlink services via Airtel to business customers, opportunities to connect communities, schools, and health centers, among many others, in even the most rural parts of India,” Airtel said in an announcement on Tuesday.
“Working with SpaceX to offer Starlink to Airtel customers in India is a significant milestone and further demonstrates our commitment to next-generation satellite connectivity,” said Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Vice Chairman, Bharti Airtel Ltd.
The SpaceX-owned Starlink is a satellite internet constellation that seeks to offer global mobile broadband. Streaming, video calls, online gaming, remote working and more are possible in even the most remote locations with the help of the world’s most advanced internet system.
“This collaboration enhances our ability to bring world-class high-speed broadband to even the most remote parts of India, ensuring that every individual, business, and community has reliable internet. Starlink will complement and enhance Airtel’s suite of products to ensure reliable and affordable broadband for our Indian customers-wherever they live and work,” Mr Vittal said in the statement.
Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, said the team at Airtel played a pivotal role in India’s telecom story, so SpaceX working with them to complement its direct offering makes great sense for the business. “We are excited to work with Airtel and unlock the transformative impact Starlink can bring to the people of India. We are constantly amazed by the incredible and inspiring things that people, businesses and organizations do when they are connected via Starlink,” Gwynne Shotwell said.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. has long resisted the quick introduction of Starlink and similar services, which use a constellation of satellites to provide reasonably high-speed Internet to any user with a clear view of the sky. The technology has been touted as a way for providing Internet coverage in remote areas.
Firms like Starlink should be required to bid for spectrum just as terrestrial operators do, firms like Reliance Jio have argued. However, Airtel, whose parent Bharti Group has had a stake in OneWeb, has supported SpaceX’s position in the past, arguing that shared spectrum resources like the kind Starlink use should only be allocated administratively. Airtel has said it would also offer OneWeb at a future date alongside Starlink. At a recent open house discussion organised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, representatives for Jio and SpaceX clashed publicly on the issue.
Starlink already has equipment on the ground in India to route Indians’ traffic through equipment where local authorities can perform inspections. However, it has neither received spectrum allocation nor a Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite authorisation from the DoT, which would allow it to start offering its services. Last month, Starlink started operating in Bhutan, the first South Asian country where it is legally operating.
Illegal Starlink terminals have been seized by authorities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in Manipur but the company has insisted that these terminals wouldn’t function on Indian territory and officials have not publicly contradicted the claim. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Mr Elon Musk during his working visit to Washington, DC last month but it is unclear if any commitments on expediting approvals for Starlink were made.
A Starlink executive had earlier clashed with Indian telecom executives over the course of an open house discussion held by the regulator, accusing the firms of making false statements about the Elon Musk-owned service. Mr Scindia had said Starlink would be free to apply. “They have to comply with all the conditionalities,” he said. “You have to look at it from a security perspective, making sure all the security concerns are addressed.”
At present, the government has issued licence to Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications, a Jio-SES joint venture. One of the main reasons that Starlink and OneWeb, its main competitor, have not yet been issued authorisations, is security clearances from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Satellite internet in India is typically only offered for business use, or as so-called backhaul in places such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, which have only recently been connected through an undersea cable network to the Indian mainland.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio currently dominates India’s broadband market with more than 14 million wired subscribers. Jio also has a user base of nearly 500 million mobile internet users. Airtel too has close to 300 million broadband subscribers. However, they are concerned that after spending more than 20 billion dollars in spectrum auctions, they now have the risk of losing customers to Elon Musk’s Starlink as satellite technology advances.
