Battle of Billionaires: Musk’s Starlink Interested in Stepping into Indian Market, Mukesh Ambani Resists

Elon Musk is eager to enter the Indian market by bringing his Starlink satellite broadband to India. However, the world’s richest man faces challenge from Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani before stepping into the horizon. The import duty policy of the Indian government, which Musk wants it to alter, has already served as a barrier preventing Tesla from stepping into the country.

Following a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the US, Musk said that he is interested in launching Starlink in India. Musk further mentioned that doing so will be incredibly helpful in remote villages as he plans on connecting isolated villages to the global World Wide Web by beaming the internet from Starlink satellites.

Battle of Billionaires

 

The thing that the Tesla CEO did not mention is how there will be a battle between two of the richest men in the world for satellite services in the world’s most populous nation. Even though Musk and Ambani have never engaged with one another directly, their clash over who will monopolize the satellite broadband market in India is likely to come to a head.

According to a global trend, Starlink is urging India to simply assign licenses instead of auctioning the spectrum, arguing that it is a natural resource that should be shared by businesses. Geographical limitations imposed by an auction may increase costs, it stated in company letters that the Indian government made public this month.

Reliance disagrees and has demanded an auction in a public submission to the government, arguing that there must be an auction to create a level playing field because foreign satellite service providers could provide voice and data services and compete with established telecom players.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio Space Tech has been granted permission to offer broadband services from space, while Airtel One Web, its main rival, has already launched 40 satellites despite needing a constellation of 588.

Musk’s Starlink, on the other hand, is available in almost 50 countries. However, his entry into India was hindered when  Sanjay Bhargava, the company’s India head, left the company and later wrote that he didn’t have time for endless meetings to discuss regulations and procedures.

Also Read: Nandan Nilekani Gives IIT-B Rs 315 Crore, the Largest Donation in India