Elon Musk’s Starlink prepares India trial, in talks with Jio, Airtel and Tata Communications
Industry experts note that while Starlink beams connectivity directly to user terminals, Indian regulations require all downlink traffic to be routed and stored locally.
ADVERTISEMENT
Elon Musk’s satellite broadband venture, Starlink, is gearing up to launch trials of its internet services in India and has begun advanced discussions with leading telecom and data centre firms to build the required terrestrial infrastructure.
According to a report in the Economic Times, the company is in talks with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Communications, alongside data centre operators such as Sify Technologies, STT, Equinix and CtrlS Datacenters. It is also engaging internet exchange providers (IXPs) including DE-CIX and Extreme, as well as fibre infrastructure players such as Microscan. Analysts estimate Starlink’s initial capital expenditure for the project could be around ₹500 crore.
The company has already secured regulatory approvals in India and has been allocated trial bandwidth. Letters of intent to satellite communication partners are expected to be issued this month. Starlink has also identified 17 locations across the country to establish ground stations, which will enable direct-to-cell satellite connectivity by linking its low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites with terrestrial fibre and data networks.
Industry experts note that while Starlink beams connectivity directly to user terminals, Indian regulations require all downlink traffic to be routed and stored locally. This makes partnerships with data centres, fibre operators and internet exchanges critical to scaling the service. “Starlink’s early tie-ups with fibre and data centre providers show it is gearing for scale,” one source told ET.
The company is also pursuing a partnership-led approach with Jio and Airtel, extending talks beyond distribution into joint marketing and infrastructure tie-ups. It has already signed a partnership with interconnection provider DE-CIX, which runs 36 points of presence across five Indian cities and manages 11Tbps of data throughput. Sudhir Kunder, Chief Business Officer at DE-CIX India, told ET that the integration will be crucial for latency-sensitive applications such as streaming, video conferencing and gaming. Extreme IXP has separately confirmed that Starlink is already connected to its Mumbai port.
India’s space economy is forecast to reach $44 billion by 2033, raising its global share from 2% to 8%. In the emerging broadband-from-space market, Starlink will compete with players including Eutelsat OneWeb, Reliance Jio-SES, Amazon Kuiper, and Globalstar, Apple’s satellite partner.
