Airtel, Elon Musk's SpaceX join hands for satcom service in India

New Delhi, Mar 11 (PTI) Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Elon Musk-led SpaceX to offer the US-based company’s high-speed internet services under Starlink to its customers in India.

The development assumes significance as Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel was at loggerheads with Starlink over issues related to licence fees and spectrum pricing for satellite-based internet service providers. Airtel is also the single-largest shareholder with a 21.2 per cent share in Starlink's rival firm Eutelsat OneWeb.

OneWeb has received permission to start operations in India and is waiting for spectrum allocation to roll out services.

Bharti Airtel Managing Director and Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal said that working with SpaceX to offer Starlink services to Airtel customers in India is a significant milestone and further demonstrates the company's commitment to next-generation satellite connectivity.

"This collaboration enhances our ability to bring world-class high-speed broadband to even the most remote parts of India, ensuring that every individual, business, and community has reliable internet. Starlink will complement and enhance Airtel's suite of products to ensure reliable and affordable broadband for our Indian customers – wherever they live and work," Vittal said.

Airtel said that its agreement with SpaceX is subject to receiving authorisations to sell Starlink's satellite communications-based services in India, Airtel said in a statement.

The agreement will enable Airtel and SpaceX to further explore how Starlink could complement and expand Airtel's offerings, and how Airtel's expertise in the Indian market could complement SpaceX's direct offerings to consumers and businesses.

Under the pact, Airtel and SpaceX will explore offering Starlink equipment at Airtel's retail stores, Starlink services via Airtel to business customers, opportunities to connect communities, schools, and health centres, among many others, in even the most distant rural parts of India.

Airtel and SpaceX will also explore how Starlink could help expand and enhance the Airtel network, as well as SpaceX's ability to utilise and benefit from Airtel's ground network infrastructure and other capabilities in India, the statement said.

Sunil Mittal at India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024 had joined his rival Mukesh Ambani-led Jio to make a strong case for satellite companies paying license fee as well as buying airwaves for their telecom services just like legacy companies do, in a bid to create a level-playing field.

He had said that satellite companies who have ambitions to come into urban areas, serving retail customers, just need to pay the telecom licenses like everyone else and they are bound to the same conditions as telecom operators.

"They need to buy the spectrum as the telecom companies do, and need to pay the license as the telecom companies do, and also secure the networks of the telecom companies," he had said.

SpaceX and other satcom players have opposed the auction route for spectrum allocation.

Musk had first termed the demand made by Jio for shunning sector regulator Trai's consultation paper on satellite broadband being allocated and not auctioned as "unprecedented".

After Mittal's speech in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at IMC, Musk asked if it was "too much trouble" to allow Starlink to provide internet services in India.

In the same month, Airtel asked telecom regulator Trai to price the satellite spectrum (radiowaves frequencies for transmitting signals) in a manner that addresses the concerns on a level playing field between terrestrial operators and satellite operators offering services directly to customers in urban areas and retail customers.

Starlink has been pitching for allocation of spectrum at less than 1 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-- which is the revenue earned from sale of telecom services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is yet to issue its recommendation on spectrum price for satcom services.

Telecom operators are charged 8 per cent of their AGR as licence fee every year and spectrum charge separately every year besides paying upfront amount for getting the rights of their usage. PTI PRS MR