New Delhi: Elon Musk, who is considered among the richest people in the world, recently expressed his desire to enter the Indian market in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in America. If Musk enters the Indian market, Indian entrepreneurs may face stiff competition. This entrepreneur will have to compete directly with Musk.
Indeed Elon Musk wants to launch his satellite broadband service Starlink. However, this will not be the first time that Elon Musk will try to bring Starlink to India. This has been attempted before. Bookings were also started for this service, but due to non-approval from the government, it had to stop bookings.
However, Musk’s entry into India will still not be easy. Because with the entry of Starlink, the world’s richest man will compete with Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s company Reliance Jio.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a tour of America. At the meeting, Musk said he was interested in launching Starlink in India, which could help bring internet to remote areas. However, Musk did not touch on the biggest challenge for Starlink in the Indian market. Mukesh Ambani’s company Reliance Jio could be an obstacle to Musk’s entry into India.
What does Elon Musk want?
The issue is satellite broadband spectrum distribution, which will pit two of the world’s richest people against each other. Indeed, Starlink wants the Indian government not to auction the spectrum. Instead follow the global trend and assign it. Musk believes that spectrum is a natural resource and all companies should be entitled to it. The auction will lead to geographic restrictions, which will drive up prices. The company has said all these things in its letter, which was made public by the Indian government this month. Reliance, on the other hand, denies this and is demanding to auction the spectrum.
What is Reliance Jio’s argument?
Reliance says foreign satellite service providers can offer voice and data services and challenge traditional players. That is why they should participate in the auction, so that the competition is equal. Reliance Jio is the largest telecom company in India. The company has 43.9 crore customers. Apart from this, the number of broadband users of the company is 8 million, which is 25 percent of the market share.
Musk has tried before
Musk has already tried to enter the Indian market in 2021. At that time, he started taking bookings for Starlink without a license. Apart from Starlink, Elon Musk has spoken to PM Modi on Tesla’s entry in India.
What will change if Musk is approved?
Starlink is a satellite broadband service provider. That is, to start this service, there will be no need to lay a network of towers on the ground. Also, wires do not have to be spread like fiber broadband services. Instead, this service provides internet connectivity using Akash. That is, Starlink will spread its entire satellite network across India, so that internet connectivity reaches remote areas. There are also many areas where it is difficult for telecom companies to install towers. Even there satellite based services can easily provide connectivity. Even in the Ukraine war, Russia destroyed all telecommunications networks, so Musk’s Starlink service provided connectivity in Ukraine. Jio and Airtel (One Web) are also rolling out their satellite services in India.