Mukesh Ambani’s Jio is latest Indian entity to sign up with Musk’s SpaceX

Mumbai: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio Platforms Ltd. announced a pact with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer Starlink Inc.’s satellite internet services in India, a day after rival Bharti Airtel Ltd. signed a similar arrangement.

This agreement is ‘subject to SpaceX receiving its own authorizations to sell Starlink in India’, Jio Platforms said in a statement Wednesday. This also enables Jio and SpaceX to explore how Starlink can boost Jio’s offerings and how Jio can complement SpaceX’s direct offerings to consumers and businesses.

Jio will make Starlink equipment available through its retail outlets and online storefronts, it said.

Bharti had announced a similar collaboration late on Tuesday in clear signs that India’s mobile telephony landscape was set to be recast. Back-to-back pacts by Ambani’s and Mittal’s firms show a volte-face by India’s incumbent wireless carriers, which were initially opposed to Starlink getting airwaves at a price lower than what they had paid via auctions in the past.