Reliance Industries, the Indian conglomerate whose telecom arm Reliance Jio is the country’s biggest mobile operator, said on Friday that it welcomes competition in satellite communications, including Starlink, but that every company must abide by Indian law. The statement was posted on X and reported on 16 October by the Indian outlets Pratidin Time and Northeast Live.
The company was answering a run of posts by SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, who questioned the delay to Starlink’s commercial launch in India and accused supporters of Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani of opposing the satellite broadband service’s entry to protect their own market position.
Why it matters
India is one of the largest markets Starlink has not yet opened commercially, and the delay is now being argued in public by the two parties themselves. Reliance describes a licensing process it says applies equally to every applicant, and in which Jio is also still waiting. Musk, quoted by Northeast Live, alleges that powerful business interests are obstructing the entry and questions Ambani’s influence in India. For readers tracking what Starlink still has to clear before it can launch in India, Friday’s exchange is where those two accounts collide.
What Reliance said
In the statement reproduced by both outlets, Reliance said it wished to place the facts on record after recent remarks about the company and the Indian market. It said it welcomes competition in satellite communications, including Starlink, but that every player must abide by the laws and policies of the land, and that the Government of India applies the same process to every applicant, Indian or foreign. Jio’s own satellite services, the company added, are still awaiting regulatory clearances.
Reliance said it had grown in an India that welcomes investment and innovation, homegrown or international, and that “that openness rests on the rule of law.” It has never feared competition, it said, calling that the truest test of who serves the customer best, and pointing to Jio’s arrival in a crowded telecom market in 2016 as the newest player, with not a single customer. Northeast Live summarised the position as the same rules for all.
Musk’s posts
Musk’s criticism, published on his X account and quoted by Pratidin Time, accused what he called Ambani’s army of internet shills of taking contradictory positions — arguing both that Starlink could not match the low prices of what he described as Ambani’s de facto monopoly, and that Starlink would be too strong a competitor. “This is absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole,” he wrote.
In an earlier post, Musk addressed Ambani sarcastically as “Dear Prime Minister Ambani,” apologising for not realising he was “the real boss of India” and asking whether Starlink might nonetheless be allowed to compete.
Where the approvals stand
Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said three companies were awaiting final approval for commercial licences and ruled out any question of a monopoly in India’s satellite communications sector, Pratidin Time reported. He also said all licensed operators, Starlink included, would have to meet the required security conditions before beginning commercial operations.
Neither outlet named the three applicants, and Reliance’s statement confirms only that Jio’s satellite arm is one of them. The identity of the other two is an open question readers should watch: the Department of Telecommunications has not published a list alongside the minister’s remarks, and this article does not treat any name as confirmed until it does.
The licensing queue is not the only obstacle. Earlier this week a group linked to the RSS asked the government to block the launch outright, a separate strand of opposition running alongside the approvals process.
The pricing question
Scindia said the government was close to a decision on the pricing framework for satellite communication services, Pratidin Time reported, without giving figures or a date. Until that is settled, there is no published Indian price for Starlink.
The only concrete numbers attached to the service are the ones from markets where it already sells. Starlink’s own order pages list residential service in the United States at $120 a month, with a one-off $349 charge for the standard kit before promotions. Indian pricing will not simply copy that: spectrum charges, licence fees and the tariff rules the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has been consulting on all feed into the final figure, none of which the government has yet confirmed.
Background
What is Starlink?
Starlink is SpaceX’s low-Earth-orbit satellite internet service, sold through dish-and-router kits that connect homes, vehicles and aircraft where fibre and mobile coverage are thin. Opening India would add one of the world’s largest unconnected populations to SpaceX’s wider push to grow Starlink’s subscriber base.
What a commercial licence and ‘security conditions’ mean here
A satellite operator in India needs a licence from the Department of Telecommunications before it can sell service to customers, which is the final approval Scindia referred to. Separately, his comments indicate that clearance to begin operations depends on meeting security conditions set by the government. Neither outlet set out the specific conditions attached to these three applications.
Why Reliance is in the queue too
Jio entered telecom a decade ago and has since moved into satellite services of its own, which is why its statement stresses that it is waiting on the same clearances. Both outlets reported the same statement text and the same Musk quotes, and Pratidin Time framed the wider context as India moving towards expanding satellite-based internet, with approvals, pricing and competition emerging as the decisive issues for companies trying to enter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is Jio in India’s telecom market?
Reliance said Jio has earned the trust of over 530 million customers in ten years and has given Indians some of the best digital infrastructure and most affordable data in the world, per the statement carried by Pratidin Time and Northeast Live.
Did Musk say Starlink’s entry would damage Reliance?
Musk said competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, and that Ambani’s profits would be lower but that he is not going out of business, according to Pratidin Time.
Have SpaceX or Mukesh Ambani responded personally to the Reliance statement?
Neither Pratidin Time nor Northeast Live reported a direct response from Ambani himself, and neither reported any comment from SpaceX replying to the Reliance statement.
Can people in India buy Starlink service right now?
No. Neither outlet reported any commercial Starlink service on sale in India; the dispute concerns a launch that has not yet begun, with final licence approvals still pending.
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