NEW DELHI, Mar 12: After it entered into an agreement with Elon Musk promoted SpaceX’s Starlink to offer highspeed broadband internet services in India, Sunil Mittal on Wednesday issued a statement saying “satellite technology” should be no different from existing technologies like 4G, 5G and 6G for telecom subscribers.
“For the telecom industry, the addition of satellite technology should be no different from bringing new technologies to its customers. Just like 4G, 5G, and 6G in the future, we will now have one more technology in our mix, i.e. SAT-G. Soon customers will be able to carry their mobiles to the remotest part of the world, with them in the skies and blue oceans. A new era of seamless global connectivity beckons,” Mittal said in a statement.
His statement comes a day after Bharti Airtel entered into an agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink’s high-speed internet services to its customers in India.
This is the first agreement to be signed in India, which is subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorizations to sell Starlink in India. It enables Airtel and SpaceX to further explore how Starlink can complement and expand Airtel’s offerings, and how Airtel’s expertise in the Indian market complements SpaceX’s direct offerings to consumers and businesses, Airtel had said in a regulatory filing with the stock exchanges.
Starlink delivers high-speed, low-latency internet to users all over the world. As the world’s first and largest satellite constellation using a low Earth orbit, Starlink delivers broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, video calls and more. Starlink is engineered and operated by SpaceX.
Airtel and SpaceX will explore offering Starlink equipment in Airtel’s retail stores, Starlink services via Airtel to business customers, opportunities to connect communities, schools, and health centers, among many others, in even the most 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 utilize and benefit from Airtel’s ground network infrastructure and other capabilities in India.
Mittal further stated that “In my opening remark at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, I made a call to both the telecom and satellite players to work together, combine their strengths, and complete the mission of connecting the unconnected, covering the oceans and the skies as well as difficult-to-reach areas. I am glad that this is being followed through with active announcements of partnerships between satellite companies and telecom operators.”
After Airtel, Reliance Jio also announced an agreement with SpaceX to offer highspeed broadband internet to its customers in India.
Mittal said that he had made a similar appeal in his keynote address at the Mobile World Congress in 2017 for operators to slash roaming charges, which were preventing customers from carrying their home networks and seeking local SIMs or Wi-Fi hotspots. He lauded the industry saying it responded favorably; roaming rates went south, and the international home network switch-on rates shot up. Today, roaming tariffs across the globe are affordable.
“I have no doubt the satellite and the telecom industry globally will respond to my call to combine their strengths,” he added. (UNI)
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