Starlink is expected to start offering connections very soon in India. The company has received the necessary permissions and the government seems to be onboard with the presence of Starlink in the country. What's interesting is the recent statement that came from Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, the Minister of State for Telecommunications. Many are wondering what the presence of Starlink will do to the likes of BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), Vodafone Idea (Vi), Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Jio.
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India is a vast market for companies such as Starlink. There's massive potential for them to get millions of customers in the first year of operation itself. However, that's not how it is going to be. The minister said on Monday that Starlink can have only 2 million or 20 lakh customers to start with and its speeds are also capped at 200 Mbps. So it will only serve a small segment of the market.
Further, in the price segment, Starlink will be way more expensive than what Indians pay for even the highest end broadband plans/connections. Starlink's purpose will be to fill the connectivity gaps in rural and backward areas to most extent. People living in urban or even semi-rural towns would want a fiber or AirFiber connection over Starlink due to price difference.
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Starlink has already partnered with the leading telecom operators of India including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. The telcos will help Starlink in distributing its connectivity kit across India through their retail presence. Starlink will have competition in India from Jio-SES and Eutelsat OneWeb. All of these companies have received the permissions, while a fourth major operator - Amazon is also looking to enter the market with its Project Kuiper.
