New Delhi: Starlink said on Friday it had worked with Indian regulators, industry and operators for more than five years and built dedicated infrastructure in the country with the requisite government approvals, asserting its readiness to provide high-speed internet services in India.
The Elon Musk-led company's statement on X came after Reliance Industries said it welcomed competition in satellite communications, including from Starlink, but stressed that all players must comply with Indian laws.
“We have worked closely with regulators, industry and operators in India for 5+ years, and built a network of dedicated systems, gateways, and other infrastructure all in-country to exclusively serve Indian traffic safely and securely — and all with the requisite government approvals,” Starlink said.
It added that it was ready to connect India with high-speed internet.
Reliance, in its first direct response to Musk's recent criticism, said it had never feared competition and viewed it as the best test of which company served customers better.
“At Reliance, we have never feared competition. We see it as the truest test of who serves the customer best,” the company said.
Reliance cited Jio's growth since entering India's telecom market in 2016 with no customers. It said Jio had earned the trust of more than 530 million customers in ten years, offering digital infrastructure and affordable data.
“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,” Reliance said.
The company added that India's openness to domestic and international investment and innovation rested on the rule of law. It also said Jio's satellite services were awaiting clearances and that the government applied the same process to every applicant, Indian or foreign.
Government sources have similarly said that any company operating in India must comply with Indian laws. The Ministry of Communications rejected allegations that the regulatory framework or its application was unfair or discriminatory, describing them as “baseless and misconceived”.
Musk has accused powerful business interests of blocking Starlink's entry into India and alleged that some companies were seeking to preserve a “monopolistic chokehold” on consumers.
In recent posts on X, he sarcastically addressed Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” and questioned whether he had greater influence over India's decisions than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Musk also criticised arguments against Starlink's entry, calling them “absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole” and referring to those defending the existing market as “an army of Internet shills”.
He argued that critics could not simultaneously claim Starlink would be unable to compete with Jio's low prices and that it would be too strong a competitor.
“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,” Musk wrote.
“Obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable,” he added.
Zoho co-founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu also challenged Musk's claims, saying the Indian government did not tolerate monopolies and arguing that Tesla benefited from US barriers to Chinese electric vehicle makers.
Vembu said India had among the world's lowest data prices and credited Jio's entry into the telecom market for making mobile data affordable. He also cited the country's low medicine prices and the low cost of its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment system.
“Prime Minister Modi has worked hard to create a competitive economy where the benefits flow to the average Indian. His government does not tolerate monopolies,” Vembu wrote on X.
He said Indian startups were making advances in low-cost rockets and argued that this posed a threat to SpaceX, just as Chinese electric vehicles challenged Tesla.
In the United States, Chinese electric vehicles face high tariffs and regulatory barriers, including restrictions on software that effectively prevent them from entering the market. Tesla, however, manufactures and sells electric vehicles in China.
Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said three ventures — Starlink, Reliance's Jio Satcom and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb — have secured satellite communications licences. Amazon's Project Kuiper has expressed interest but must follow the established procedure, he said.
A licence does not automatically allow a company to begin commercial services. Spectrum assignment and compliance with security requirements remain necessary steps.
Scindia said spectrum would be assigned once the government finalised a revenue-based charging framework and individual operators fulfilled security requirements. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Department of Telecommunications were close to a decision on satellite spectrum pricing, he added.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal recently said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026 that Eutelsat OneWeb was significantly ahead of Starlink in the queue to launch services in India.
“I think I am significantly ahead in the queue from him. I applied five years back,” Mittal said. “We don't have the permission, so we'll be very happy to get it at least a few days before him”.
Mittal said OneWeb's ground network had been ready for three years and its satellites had been over India for five years, but the company was still awaiting permission to begin commercial operations.
Reliance is developing its satellite ambitions, including a proposed constellation of about 1,600 low-Earth-orbit satellites aimed at extending internet connectivity to 600,000 villages. The project would put Jio in more direct competition with Starlink, which is seeking access to India's market, including remote communities and locations poorly covered by terrestrial networks.
Reliance and SpaceX last year signed an agreement to explore ways of bringing Starlink services to Indian customers through Jio's retail network.
The dispute comes as Reliance prepares for the initial public offering of Jio Platforms, its digital services business. Jio has set a price band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 a share for an offer of up to 27 crore new shares, about 3% of existing capital, with no offer-for-sale component.
At the upper end of the price band, the offer would raise about Rs 30,213 crore, exceeding Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,870 crore share sale in October 2024, described in the supplied text as the country's biggest. The price implies a market value of about Rs 10.3 lakh crore, below the roughly Rs 11 lakh crore the company had earlier been reported to be seeking.
Bidding is scheduled for October 21-23, with anchor investors bidding on October 19. The shares are expected to begin trading on October 28.
(With agency inputs from ANI and PTI)