Elon Musk’s satellite communication company Starlink is getting closer to launching its services in India, with expected pricing of Rs 3,000 per month for unlimited data and a Rs 33,000 one-time cost for the receiver kit, according to a report by CNBC Awaaz.
According to DoT sources as cited by NDTV, the satellite-based internet service provider will begin operations in India within 12 months by offering 600 to 700 Gbps, or gigabytes per second, of bandwidth.
Earlier on June 6, Starlink secured a key licence from the Ministry of Telecommunications, which takes it closer towards launching commercial operations in India.
Starlink currently operates in over 100 countries, offering both residential and roaming plans. In most regions, the residential service is divided into two categories: Residential Lite, designed for light usage and smaller households, and Residential, suited for larger households with higher data needs.
Starlink is the third company to get a licence from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to provide satellite internet services in the country. The first two include Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications. A fourth applicant, Amazon’s Kuiper is still waiting for approvals.
The Elon Musk-owned company, which had been vying for an Indian licence for some time now, recently signed pacts with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, which together control more than 70 per cent of the country’s telecom market.