Starlink To Offer Affordable Internet In India Soon

Even after facing hurdles, Starlink said that it is planning to start its services in India soon. Notably, Elon Musk's satellite internet company is facing regulatory issues from multiple authorities as it has already started pre-selling services in the country.

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The internet service provider is likely to offer its services in all remote areas of India by the next year. The Starlink services are likely to be affordable and expected to increase their speed up to 300 Mbps from 150 Mbps. Besides, the satellite internet service provider said that it will be using 12,000 satellites to offer the services.

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"Yeah, should be fully mobile later this year, so you can move it anywhere or use it on an RV or truck in motion. We need a few more satellite launches to achieve complete coverage & some key software upgrades. Service uptime, bandwidth & latency are improving rapidly. Probably out of beta this summer," Elon Musk said.

Starlink Issues In India

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It is worth noting that the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) is examining Starlink services as it has started pre-booking offers without any Government approval. The ministry believes that it is violating telecom and technology rules. Also, the report claims that the ministry is planning to issue notice to the company to know the reason behind pre-booking offer.

Satellite Industry Expected Revenues

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Meanwhile, the ABI Research firm said that satellite broadband services are expected to get 3.5 million users soon and 5.2 million customers by the end of 2026. The satellite services are expected to achieve $4.1 billion revenue for the industry.

"LEO systems offer a major advantage of low latency between 30-50 milliseconds, enabling LEO broadband services to support low latency services such as online gaming and live video streaming," said Khin Sandi Lynn, Industry Analyst at ABI Research.

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However, the ABI research firm added that the satellite industry is likely to face tough competition from JioFiber, Airtel Xstream Fibre, BSNL Bharat Fibre, and AirFibre as these players are also expanding their reach to rural areas. Furthermore, the firm added that LTE and upcoming 5G services might challenge the satellite internet industry.

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