Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has finally paved the road to bring its satellite-powered Starlink internet to consumers and businesses in India. It's signing an agreement with the telecom giant Bharti Airtel, allowing the two companies to complement and expand each other's business offerings in the Indian market.
Airtel has a massive network of retail stores nationwide, including metropolitan regions and smaller cities. The duo has plans to sell Startlink internet equipment through Airtel stores, offer Starlink services via Airtel to business customers, and explore opportunities to connect schools, health centers, and communities even in the most rural parts of the country.
"This is the first agreement to be signed in India, which is subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorizations to sell Starlink in India," Airtel said in a press release.
The two-way partnership will allow Starlink to benefit from Airtel's ground network infrastructure and help the telecom giant improve and expand its network. For Airtel, it's the second partnership of such kind as it's already working with Eutelsat OneWeb, which offers broadband internet services through a network of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
Launched in 2019, Starlink internet is available in over 100 countries worldwide through a massive constellation of 7,000 LEO satellites. SpaceX has plans to deploy over 12,000 satellites as part of the constellation to cover the entire planet, and a future expansion of up to 34,000 satellites could happen.
Primarily, Starlink offers stationary dishes that can point themselves to the sky and connect to the satellite up in space. However, it has built tech to offer satellite internet in RVs, campers, ships, and even planes up in the air.
One of the perks of having internet from space is that Starlink has served people in flood-hit Germany and Ukraine during the conflict with Russia. While initially unsurprising, Starlink internet speeds are now comparable to broadband. Users can expect download speeds between 25 to 220 Mbps.
Last year, SpaceX teased jaw-dropping download speeds of 8Gbps in a remote location powered by its mobile community gateway. The company also partnered with T-Mobile to offer direct-to-cell services and successfully tested communication between smartphones and Starlink satellites. It's supported on iPhone, Pixel 9, and for Samsung users.
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