Elon Musk’s Starlink to shake up Mukesh Ambani’s Jio, Sunil Mittal’s Airtel,Vodafone and BSNL? to provide internet per month only in Rs…

Elon Musk’s Starlink can be a big disruptor for Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Airtel if its launched at cheaper prices.

Elon Musk’s company, Starlink, may soon launch satellite internet services in India. According to an Economic Times report, Starlink can offer unlimited data plans from Rs 840 per month. This will help the company to acquire 10 million customers in India but its hardware might be costly.

Starlink Internet Prices In India

Starlink and other satellite internet providers like Bharti Group’s Eutelsat OneWeb, Reliance Jio’s joint venture with SES, and Globalstar, are preparing to roll out services in India. This pricing strategy can help Starlink establish their base in India. It can challenge existing internet service providers like Airtel, Jio, Vi, and BSNL.

Potential Starlink Price In India

Satellite internet providers will have to bear a lot of expenses on spectrum and licensing but they are likely to keep prices low to attract customers. 

Globally, Starlink’s hardware kits range between $250 (about Rs 21,300) and $380 (about Rs 32,400). This expense will be much higher for Indian users when other broadband service companies offer good speeds at lower prices.

Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio-SES have already received regulatory approvals to launch satellite internet services in India. Starlink is awaiting final clearance from India’s space regulator and has received a letter of intent from the Department of Telecommunications.

Advantages of satellite internet is that it can provide connectivity in remote and rural areas where traditional broadband infrastructure is difficult to deploy. Satellite internet doesn’t require ground-based infrastructure like towers or optical fiber lines. It only requires a receiver on the ground.

However, there are other challenges like Starlink currently has about 7,000 satellites which can serve 4 million users globally. Even if the company increases its satellite count to 18,000, it might still only be able to serve 1.5 million users in India by 2030. Additionally, only 0.7%-0.8% of India’s geographical area comes under global satellite coverage; it means only 700-800 satellites can actually be operational in India at any given time.  Whereas the country already has over 800,000 telecom towers and 3 million mobile signal stations.

Satellite internet can’t immediately replace ground-based networks but Elon Musk’s Starlink has potential to slowly disrupt it.