Elon Musk’s Starlink is going to consider India as one of the primary markets to capitalise on its extensive satellite capacity, as it lacks access to Russia and China, the two largest countries by area, analysts say.
Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation operators, like Starlink, look for countries with large areas to unlock a larger portion of their capacity.
With India’s substantial market, Starlink’s global user base is anticipated to grow from under 5 million to 5.7 million in five years, analysts predict.
“With Starlink not having access to the top-2 countries by area (Russia/China), other large countries such as India (the 7th largest) have become more important. Starlink’s imminent launch in India will help it monetise a large capacity, given India’s large area,” Jefferies stated in a research note accessed by the Economic Times.
Jefferies also added Starlink, with its current capacity, is capable of providing support to 0.18 million subscribers in India at 100Mbps speeds, “Assuming a 30x rise in its capacity by 2030, Starlink will be able to service 5.7 million subscribers in India…this is meaningful for Starlink, which has a current (global) subscriber base of 4.6 million.”
Reliance Jio and Bharati Airtel recently joined forces with Starlink to offer the latter’s satellite communication equipment and services at their retail locations, while also looking into additional collaboration opportunities.
As per a report by ET, Starlink’s capacity is anticipated to outperform the satcom rivals by 80-90 times faster capacity. Starlink is expected to establish three gateways located in Mumbai, Pune, and Indore along with one point of presence (PoP) in Mumbai to serve the Indian market.
Currently, Starlink’s total capacity is at 350 Tbps which is about to substantially advance as the company announced the launch of third Gen satellites that hold the potential to add 1Tbps capacity as comapre to 96Gbps in second Gen systems.
