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Reliance answers Musk on Starlink: 'We have never feared competition'
Reliance Industries broke its silence on Friday after Elon Musk accused Mukesh Ambani of blocking Starlink, saying Jio's own satellite service is waiting on the same government clearances.
Key points
- Reliance said it welcomes competition in satellite communications, Starlink included.
- It said Jio's own satellite service is also awaiting government clearances.
- Starlink, Jio and Eutelsat OneWeb all need a security clearance before spectrum can be assigned.
Reliance Industries has answered Elon Musk. A week after the SpaceX chief accused Mukesh Ambani of standing in the way of Starlink’s launch in India, the company said on Friday that it has nothing to fear from a rival.
“At Reliance, we have never feared competition,” the company said. It said it welcomes competition in satellite communications, Starlink included, and pointed out that Jio’s own satellite services are also waiting for government clearances. Reliance recalled Jio’s entry into mobile telephony in 2016, which it said has since grown to more than 530 million customers.
A week of posts
The row began on 7 October, when Musk wrote that Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold”. He then named Ambani, asking whether he was “the real boss of India”, and in a later post called him “Prime Minister Ambani”. Musk has argued that satellite internet could reach remote areas where poor connectivity holds back schooling and keeps small businesses from wider markets. He has offered no evidence that anyone is blocking Starlink.
Until Friday, Reliance had stayed quiet. Its statement does not name Musk.
Same queue, says the government
The Centre has rejected the charge from the start. The Ministry of Communications has called India’s satellite licensing “fair and non-discriminatory” and said Starlink, Jio Satellite Communications and the Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb are all broadly at the same stage of security assessment.
All three hold licences to offer satellite-based mobile services through constellations that do not hover over one spot. A licence on its own does not allow commercial service. Each company must first show that it meets security conditions, and only then can spectrum be assigned.
OneWeb is reported to have asked in September for an urgent clearance, more than 18 months after it demonstrated security compliance in January 2025. Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi this week that OneWeb is well ahead of Starlink in the queue, having applied five years ago, and that its ground network has been ready for three years.
Starlink’s side
Starlink says it is ready. Lauren Dreyer, the company’s vice-president of business operations, said earlier this month that it has built 20 gateway sites in India with hundreds of antennas. Starlink is also reported to have reapplied to the space regulator IN-SPACe for approval of its second-generation constellation of nearly 30,000 low-earth-orbit satellites, which is meant to support direct-to-phone connections.
What happens next
No company can start selling satellite broadband until the Ministry of Home Affairs completes its security checks, and the government has not given a date. The Union Cabinet has also yet to decide what operators will pay for spectrum.