Elon Musk’s Starlink to offer cheaper internet rates in India: Report

Starlink has opened pre-bookings for its internet services in India with a deposit, and received decent response in the country. The company is exploring prospects of collaborating with telecom companies in India to expand broadband services in the country with a focus on rural areas.

Starlink India Director Sanjay Bhargava recently told a news publication that the service was expensive and passing on the costs to the customers would make it unaffordable.

Also Read: Elon Musk’s Starlink to explore collaboration with Indian telcos for broadband

Bhargava implied that Starlink will need to offer services that will outweigh the pricing. He added that the company will initially focus on interior regions of the country where internet service is difficult to access.

In a video posted last month, Bhargava had outlined phase-wise plan to extend Starlink services to rural communities in India by providing them hardware kits. The company intends to operate at least two lakh of its devices in India, 1.6 lakh of which will be rural communities.

Also Read: Elon Musk’s Starlink registers India unit, plans to focus on rural areas

Earlier this week, Bhargava talked about collaborating with Indian telcos to expand broadband services in the country with a focus on rural areas. The Starlink India chief said discussions with broadband service providers will start once the 12 Phase-1 aspirational districts are identified by the NITI Aayog and the company will see the interest levels of the various players and the USOF (universal service obligation fund).

Also Read: Elon Musk praises Starlink India chief for connecting rural regions. See post

Starlink claims to have received more than 5,000 pre-orders from India. The company is charging a deposit of $99 or ₹7,350 per customer and claims to deliver data speeds in the range of 50-150 Mbps in the beta stage. Once more Starlink satellites are deployed in the low-earth orbit, the speeds are expected to touch Gbps levels.