Rivals become retailers
Published 11 October 2026
On March 11, 2025, Airtel announced an agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink to its Indian customers. The agreement was subject to SpaceX obtaining its own authorizations to sell the service. Airtel and SpaceX would explore offering equipment in retail stores, providing services to business customers, and connecting communities, schools and health centres. They would also examine how Starlink could expand Airtel's network and how SpaceX could use Airtel's ground infrastructure. The announcement turned potential competition into an opportunity for distribution and network cooperation. Airtel's participation did not replace the permissions SpaceX needed. The companies were preparing ways to sell or use the service if the regulatory conditions were met. bharti.com, Bharti Enterprises, 2025-03-11
Jio Platforms followed on March 12 with its own SpaceX agreement. Jio said it would make Starlink solutions available in its retail outlets and online storefronts. The announcement also described support for installation and activation. As with Airtel, the arrangement was conditional on SpaceX receiving its own authorizations. Jio presented Starlink as complementing JioAirFiber and JioFiber in places that were difficult to reach. This was a new role for the company that had pressed for an auction-based spectrum regime. It could continue to have a position on regulatory costs while preparing to distribute the resulting service. A commercial partnership did not logically erase every earlier disagreement about the conditions under which that service should operate. ril.com, JIO TO BRING SPACEX'S STARLINK HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO ITS CUSTOMERS trai.gov.in, RJIL comments and annexures, October 2024
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell welcomed Jio's commitment to connectivity and said the company looked forward to receiving Indian government authorization. Jio and SpaceX would also evaluate other areas of cooperation using their respective infrastructure. The release gave no Indian retail tariff and announced no completed national launch. It created a potential distribution relationship around a service whose regulatory route was still being completed. ril.com, JIO TO BRING SPACEX'S STARLINK HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO ITS CUSTOMERS
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh challenged the agreements on March 13. He alleged that the prime minister had arranged them to gain goodwill with US President Donald Trump through Musk. That was an opposition allegation, not a fact established by the corporate releases. Ramesh also asked who would have the power to switch connectivity off when national security required it, whether Starlink or its Indian partners. He questioned whether other satellite providers would be allowed and on what terms. These questions moved the public argument from equipment distribution to control. Selling a terminal through an Indian retailer did not, on its own, answer who operated the network or controlled continuity of service. thehindu.com, Congress expresses concern over Airtel and Jio's partnership with Elon Musk's..., 2025-03-13 ril.com, JIO TO BRING SPACEX'S STARLINK HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO ITS CUSTOMERS
Ramesh emphasized how quickly the two major telecom companies had announced partnerships after earlier objections to Starlink's entry. The political interpretation he attached to that change remained attributed to him. The underlying commercial announcements established something narrower: Airtel and Jio saw possible value in supplying or using Starlink alongside their existing businesses, subject to permission. The reversal was therefore real at the level of prospective cooperation, but its cause could not be established by timing alone. An incumbent could see both competitive risk and a distribution opportunity in the same technology. The March agreements made that possibility concrete without resolving the regulator's spectrum terms, security requirements or the political claims made around the deals. thehindu.com, Congress expresses concern over Airtel and Jio's partnership with Elon Musk's..., 2025-03-13 bharti.com, Bharti Enterprises, 2025-03-11 ril.com, JIO TO BRING SPACEX'S STARLINK HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO ITS CUSTOMERS