Reliance Industries Set to Compete Starlink: Report

In a major development, Reliance Industries is now looking to launch its own low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These satellites will help the company in delivering high-speed broadband internet directly from space to the consumers and enterprises. Starlink is already a big name in this segment and operates in more than 100 countries. Reliance Industries is now looking to invest billions of dollars into this and the work has already started.

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According to an ET report, several teams have already been made which are now working on satellites, launches, payloads and user terminals. If India has its own LEO satellite constellation providing internet to the users, there would be nothing better than that in a war scenario. This reduces the country’s dependence on others.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is spearheading the project. Other Reliance Industries key executives are also playing a role in this. This includes Jio Plaforms Limited (JPL) chief executive Mathew Oommen, RIL president PK Bhatnagar, and JPL senior vice president Ayush Bhatnagar.

Reliance Industries will need to file for orbital slots and frequencies with the ITU (Internationa Telecommunication Union). Reliance has already asked the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) to facilitate with this.

Reliance Could Even Acquire a Company to Get Started Fast

There are also discussions within Reliance that they can acquire any existing satellite entity with orbital slots and infrastructure ready. This will enable a faster launch time to the market. While things have already started rolling here, clarity and official announcements will take some time. At this stage, Reliance is still likely figuring out the finer details of the plan.