Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, used his social platform X on Sunday to argue that letting Starlink sell satellite internet in India would leave ordinary Indians better off, while accusing defenders of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani of “absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole.” The post, reported from New Delhi by Hindustan Times and Business Today, is the latest in a week of near-daily attacks over Starlink’s stalled commercial launch in India.
Key facts
- Musk said competition “would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices,” and that Ambani’s profits would fall but his business would survive, according to Hindustan Times.
- He called critics “Ambani’s army of Internet shills” and said their arguments were contradictory, Business Today reports.
- Reliance has not commented publicly on Musk’s allegations, Business Today says; Billionaires.Africa reports Reliance did not respond to requests for comment from several outlets.
- India’s Ministry of Communications says its satellite rules are “fair and non-discriminatory” and that three licensed operators are at broadly the same regulatory stage.
Why it matters: a licence that cannot be used
India is the only large market where Starlink holds a licence and still cannot sell a single subscription. Yahoo Finance, citing Bloomberg, reports the satellite broadband service has crossed nine million customers in more than 155 countries and territories and is SpaceX’s largest revenue driver, with operating income doubling last year to $4.42 billion. Business Today cites a separate Musk claim that Starlink is licensed in 165 countries; the two counts are not in conflict because they measure different things — where the service is actually sold against where it merely holds authorisation. India is the clearest illustration of that ten-country gap.
Measured against that expansion, the Indian file has barely moved: SpaceX has been seeking entry since 2022, according to Billionaires.Africa, a stretch during which Starlink went from a few hundred thousand subscribers to nine million elsewhere. The remaining obstacle is also not commercial, which is what makes Musk’s choice of target notable. The licence was issued by the Department of Telecommunications, satellite spectrum pricing is still unfinished at the regulator, and the last sign-off rests with a third body, the Home Ministry — none of them the rivals he is attacking. On the variable SpaceX does control, price, he has named no figure, and none of the reports contains an Indian tariff, a launch date or a hardware cost. Billionaires.Africa notes India has more than a billion internet users and large rural areas that remain poorly connected: the demand Musk is invoking, but has not yet costed.
What Musk actually said
Business Today quotes his post in full. Musk said opponents claim in one breath that Starlink could never match the low prices of what he called Ambani’s “de facto monopoly,” and in the next that Starlink would be too strong a competitor. He argued the two claims cannot both be true, and added that if Starlink were too expensive in India nobody would buy it, so SpaceX would have to make its pricing affordable.
The post was prompted by a comment from Aaron Burnett, chief executive of Mach33 Financial Group, who questioned the idea that broadband is cheap and ubiquitous across India. Burnett said mobile data use runs at 30 to 40 GB a month while home fibre penetration stays comparatively low, despite average monthly household consumption of close to 300 GB, Business Today reports. He suggested an affordable alternative could spur fixed broadband adoption.
How the row escalated
Yahoo Finance, citing Bloomberg, reports Musk wrote on Wednesday (October 7) that Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people,” naming nobody. Billionaires.Africa says he then asked on Thursday (October 8) whether Ambani was “the real boss of India,” and on Friday (October 9) addressed him as “Prime Minister Ambani,” apologising for not realising he was the country’s real boss and asking whether he would nonetheless allow Starlink to compete.
On Saturday (October 10), according to Hindustan Times, Musk shared screenshots of media reports about Reliance-linked political activity, including a 2022 Al Jazeera report on a Reliance-funded firm’s promotion of BJP campaigns on Facebook and an archived 2024 Indian Express report on Qwik Supply, which it said donated ₹385 crore to the BJP and ₹25 crore to the Shiv Sena through electoral bonds. Business Today also dates that sharing to October 10.
The government’s position
The Ministry of Communications rejected the oligarch claim on October 8 in a statement that named neither Musk nor Starlink, saying the authorisation framework applies to all telecommunication services including satellite, Billionaires.Africa reports; in our earlier coverage of that statement, the ministry called the allegations “baseless and misconceived”.
Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia went further on October 9 at the India Mobile Congress in Delhi, saying the Department of Telecommunications is technology agnostic and that India does not allow a monopoly in any sector, according to Business Today. He confirmed satcom licences for Starlink, Reliance Jio’s Jio Satcom and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, and said Amazon’s Project Kuiper has signalled interest. Scindia said the department and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India are still finalising satellite spectrum pricing, and that all licensed operators must clear mandatory security checks first; as covered in our report on those remarks, the security clearance sits with the Home Ministry rather than his own ministry.
Who controls India’s market
The sources measure concentration differently. Yahoo Finance, citing government data, says Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel together serve roughly 910 million broadband subscribers, more than 80% of that market. Billionaires.Africa, citing Semafor, puts the pair’s share of India’s telecom market at about 80%. The figures are close because the denominators differ rather than the reality: one counts broadband connections only, the other the telecom market as a whole, including voice-centric mobile plans. On either basis the duopoly clears four-fifths of users.
Both outlets note that Jio and Airtel-linked OneWeb are building satellite businesses that would compete directly with Starlink, and shares in both telecom groups slipped after his first broadside, with Airtel down as much as 1% and Reliance as much as 1.1% on Thursday, Yahoo Finance reports.
Build complete, approval pending
Lauren Dreyer, vice president of Starlink business operations at SpaceX, told an industry conference in New Delhi that the company had spent five years on India’s regulatory process and designed its network to meet local security requirements, saying: “We are standing ready to serve India once India is ready,” Yahoo Finance reports. She said more than 20 ground stations are in place, each with hundreds of antennas, and that Indian user data stays in the country.
The dispute has also drawn in opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who replied to Musk’s question about Ambani with “Wait till you discover the other guy,” prompting Musk to answer “Thank you, Rahul. This is indeed troubling,” according to Billionaires.Africa. Gandhi later said he was “not anti-business” but “anti-monopoly.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Why have Starlink’s final Indian approvals been held up?
Billionaires.Africa reports that security has been the sticking point: Indian authorities raised concerns in 2024 after Starlink devices turned up in a drug seizure in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and during an army operation in Manipur. It adds, citing TheNextWeb, that in June this year security agencies held back clearances after Starlink was switched on in Iran, where it has no licence.
Weren’t Jio and Airtel supposed to sell Starlink in India?
Yes. Billionaires.Africa reports that in 2025 both Jio and Bharti Airtel signed agreements to sell Starlink equipment once the service was approved, and that Jio has since formed a satellite joint venture with Luxembourg’s SES. Yahoo Finance, citing Bloomberg, describes Musk’s attack as a striking about-face given those distribution deals.
Who is Aaron Burnett, whose comment triggered Musk’s post?
Business Today identifies him as chief executive of Mach33 Financial Group, an investment firm focused on space and aerospace ventures. His post disputing the claim that Indian broadband is already cheap and ubiquitous is what Musk replied to on Sunday.
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