Starlink, a fully owned subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, still has a long way to go before it can start its satellite broadband service in India, even though it has crossed two significant hurdles: one, it has tied up with foes-turned-friends Reliance Jio and Airtel; and two, it has the Indian government’s backing on administrative allocation of spectrum, which was a key demand.
The remaining hurdles, however, are equally daunting. Satellite telecom service cannot take off in India unless a policy is framed. For instance, the regulator is yet to recommend a spectrum-pricing formula. Further, when the spectrum will be available to the players is not known. Security clearance is another loose end. Among the conditions being reported in the media are mandatory local control centres and storage of data in India. There is also a proposal to make Starlink go into rural and remote areas initially, while preventing it from accessing the urban subscriber base. However, that will be a big mistake. Here’s why.
Satellite telecom offers promise to significantly transform the landscape of internet connectivity by reaching the remotest areas, which have remained broadband-deprived thus far. According to Statista, as of February 2025, India had over 651 million people without internet connection. China ranked second, with around 311.9 million. These are the target groups for whom internet connectivity can be transformed with networks like Starlink, driving advancements in education, the economy, and social inclusion through high-speed, low-latency access.
India has over 1.17 billion telecom subscribers and urban teledensity is roughly 130%, but the rural teledensity is around 60%. Which means India does have a huge unserved market for high-speed connectivity. Starlink has thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit which send super-fast internet straight down to anyone with a dish. More importantly, it works anywhere: deserts, forests, war zones, oceans — places where regular internet doesn’t exist.
Much has been made out of Starlink’s prohibitive pricing, which, it is being said, will ensure that it would remain only a bit player in India. This is not necessarily so. Goldman Sachs forecasts that low Earth orbit subscription fees, which include broadband and mobile services, will get dramatically cheaper, with prices dropping from $148 per month in 2023 to about $16 per month by 2035. Goldman also estimates the global satellite market will surge from $15 billion to at least $108 billion by 2035.
Experts expect Starlink to offer competitive broadband plans, potentially starting at as low as $15 a month — a price point designed to challenge India’s existing market. Starlink has already disrupted many markets by offering cheaper internet than local providers, like in Africa. In at least five of the 16 African countries where the service is available, a monthly Starlink subscription is cheaper than the leading fixed internet service provider. According to the Rest of World, they are Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. The prices range widely, from $10 in Kenya to $50 in Eswatini.
The price of Starlink’s hardware kit in Kenya has in recent months been halved, with the option to purchase a scaled-down version at an even cheaper price. Additionally, Starlink has launched a monthly rental plan for its equipment at $15, helping cost-sensitive consumers and businesses access the service without having to own it. Starlink is also set to enter Bangladesh, with SpaceX signing agreements with several local firms to set up ground stations. The prices will be “competitive”, according to Bangladesh experts.
In a post on CircleID, Larry Press, professor of information systems at California State University, has said SpaceX first departed from its uniform Starlink pricing policy when it offered a reduced price for throttled service in France two years ago. Since then, many new, higher-capacity satellites have been launched, enabling SpaceX to reduce prices in low- and middle-income countries. Starlink’s unlimited data plan, he says, will also appeal to organisations like schools and businesses.
It’s true that the prices are high at present. Starlink’s website notes that users need to purchase a Starlink kit to access the service at home. The kit, which includes a receiver or antenna, kickstand, router, cable, and power supply, costs between $349 and $599. The minimum monthly fee for residential customers is $120, while corporate customers face higher costs. Prices vary by country.
But India has a huge market at this end of the spectrum too. There’s always going to be a subset of the market willing to pay a premium for convenience. This subset may be a small percentage of the total number of telecom consumers in India but in absolute terms, the number is huge for any telecom company. Take, for example, the forecast that the number of affluent consumers in India will rise from approximately 60 million in 2023 to 100 million by 2027. According to the Wealth Report 2024 by global consultancy Knight Frank, the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (with a net worth of over $30 million) is projected to increase from 13,263 in 2023 to 19,908 by 2028.
It’s not just big cities like Mumbai and Delhi that are witnessing this growth. Smaller cities, such as Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Chandigarh, are also showing a keen interest in premium goods. According to a report by Bain and Company, India’s luxury market is forecast to expand to 3.5 times its current size, reaching the $85-90 billion mark by 2030 due to rapid economic growth. These forecasts position India as the fastest-growing luxury market globally.
The moot point is that Starlink has more than 5 million users in 125 countries and territories, having doubled its subscriber base in 2024 alone. India obviously can’t afford to be left out for long. It’s good that Jio and Airtel have realised this and come off their earlier rigid positions.