Rivals turn partners: After Airtel, Ambani's Jio signs satellite internet deal with Musk's Starlink

The deal with Musk - considered the right-hand-man to US President Donald Trump - comes a day after telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel signed a similar partnership deal with SpaceX. Rivals Jio and Airtel had come together to demand an auction for awarding spectrum for satellite services in India as they feared an administrative allocation will give Musk airwaves at a price lower than what they had paid via auctions in the past.

This agreement "is subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorisations to sell Starlink in India", Jio Platforms - the company that holds telecom and digital properties of Reliance group - said in a statement on Wednesday (12 Mar ’25)

Jio will offer Starlink equipment through its retail outlets as well as through its online storefronts. Jio and SpaceX will also explore how they can boost each other's offerings.

"Through this agreement, the parties will leverage Jio's position as the world's largest mobile operator in terms of data traffic and Starlink's position as the world's leading low earth orbit satellite constellation operator to deliver reliable broadband services across the country, including the most rural and remote regions of India," the statement said.

The deals by Airtel and Jio come weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Musk in Washington to discuss issues including space, mobility, technology and innovation. During the trip, the prime minister had also met Trump, whose administration has upped the ratchet on tariffs against countries including India. Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, was one of the select few invitees at the Trump's inauguration...Their deals announced within 12 hours of each underscoring Musk's growing political and business clout in the current US administration. As the head of the nascent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the world's richest man has emerged as a dominant force in Trump's second term.

In the statement, Jio said its agreement with SpaceX is to offer Starlink's broadband internet services to its customers in India..."The agreement with SpaceX is part of Jio's commitment to ensuring that reliable internet is fully accessible to all enterprises, small and medium businesses, and communities across India. Starlink complements JioAirFiber and JioFiber by extending high-speed internet to the most challenging of locations in a quick and affordable manner," the statement said.

Jio and SpaceX are also evaluating other complementary areas of cooperation to leverage their respective infrastructure to further enhance India's digital ecosystem...Mittal, founder and chairman, Bharati Enterprises, in a statement on Wednesday said he had at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona called on "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," he said...

"I have no doubt the satellite and the telecom industry globally will respond to my call to combine their strengths," he said. "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. Soon customers will be able to carry their mobiles to the remotest part of the world, with them in the skies and blue oceans. A new era of seamless global connectivity beckons."