Jio Platforms today announced a partnership with Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, closely following on the heels of Bharti Airtel that also made a partnership announcement on Tuesday. Analysts described the partnerships as a win-win for all wherein SpaceX will have to bear lesser costs and telcos will enjoy an additional form of revenue.
“A combination of factors serve as reasons for this partnership. For one, we are entering a phase where with all the AI coming in, there is a need for easy computational power through the network. So first market reality is to increase internet penetration in the country. Further, this may also help spectrum allocation to be carried out in a proper way. Starlink always wanted to get into India due to the potential market. We are probably among the top 3 largest internet bases. However, all of this is contingent on SpaceX getting through with all the regulatory approvals,” Subhendu Pattnaik, Chief Marketing Officer, Covasant.
This probably brings to an end the regulatory tussle between Airtel and Jio and SpaceX regarding spectrum allocation. In November, Indian telcos and satcom providers engaged in a heated argument over the spectrum allocation for satcom services during the Telecom Regulator of India’s (TRAI) Open House Discussion. With the companies now entering a partnership, this conflict has been resolved. However, Airtel told businessline that it remains strong on its regulatory stand.
Meanwhile, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said regarding the partnership, “In my opening remark at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, I made a call to both the telecom and satellite players to work together, combine their strengths, and complete the mission of connecting the unconnected, covering the oceans and the skies as well as difficult-to-reach areas. I am glad that this is being followed through with active announcements of partnerships between satellite companies and telecom operators…For the telecom industry, the addition of satellite technology should be no different from bringing new technologies to its customers. Just like 4G, 5G, and 6G in the future, we will now have one more technology in our mix, i.e. SAT-G.”
Telcos said that while they will help SpaceX with marketing and distribution, the satcom provider still has to get licenses from the government on its own. The companies will provide Starlink equipment in their retail outlets, as per the press releases. In February, SpaceX had entered a similar partnership with the US arm of the T-Mobile telecom company for Direct-to-Device (D2D) satellite services. Subscribers of T-Mobile’s rivals, AT&T and Verizon, can also avail the service in its beta stage, provided they have an eSIM-capable and unlocked phones to access the service.
In India, securing the approval from IN-SPACe, the Department of Telecommunications of Government of India, is still one of the biggest challenges for SpaceX, said Pulkit Pandey, Sr Principal Analyst at Gartner Research. In November, 2024 the company had agreed to the Indian government’s data localization and security requirements.
Forrester firm on satcom’s DoA entry
In December, Forrester Research had predicted that India will be DoA in the commercial segment at least for 2025. Ashutosh Sharma, Vice President and Research Director at Forrester told businessline he stood firm on this expectation even after the partnership announcements.
“It’s eventually not about Starlink’s ability to distribute its services but the demand perspective. The demand is not going to be strong enough because there’s no reason for people to go with satcom besides it being a novelty. India is very well-covered with the 5G coverage. It’s great that SpaceX is partnering with Jio and Airtel but it won’t make any difference in terms of demand,” he said.
Sharma added that the partnerships still benefit companies since they allow Starlink to distribute solutions without investing too heavily into an untested market. In case of telcos, the companies will get a cut in the limited demand for satellite, he said.
Satcom still considered a complementary service
Experts speaking to businessline maintained that satcomm remains complementary to India’s existing communication services. Even US company AT&T has said that satellites can complementexisting terrestrial services but not work in isolation. This is because there are not enough satellite in space engineered with that amount of radio frequency. Further, the antenna array of those satellites must be strong enough to deliver customer expectations.
However, Indian stakeholders like Lt Gen AK Bhatt (retd), Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA), had said that satcom can help overcome the digital divide in difficult geographies where the cost of putting fibre is too high. Satcom technology connects various points on Earth using the satellites orbiting in space, because of which it is able to reach remote hinterlands of the world.
