Elon Musk’s SpaceX Establishes A Subsidiary To Provide Wireless Internet In India

Last Updated on November 3, 2021 by Asif Iqbal Shaik

People in India may have to wait a bit longer before Elon Musk’s Tesla sets up an EV (Electric Vehicle) manufacturing facility in India. But they can soon experience wireless internet from Elon Musk’s other venture Starlink, a division of SpaceX. Sanjay Bhargava, who took charge of the Starlink satellite internet operations of India last month, took to social media to announce SSCPL (Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited) in India, which is a 100 percent subsidiary owned by SpaceX.

Elon Musk tweeted “Sanjay deserves a lot of credit for making X/PayPal succeed. Now helping SpaceX serve rural communities in India. Much respect“, congratulating Bhargava who previously worked with Musk’s electronic payments company. 

Sanjay Bhargava also shared some more details related to the business strategy of Starlink in India. Sanjay says Starlink is planning to provide 100 Starlink hardware kits for free to rural communities in India. It will provide 20 Starlink kits to schools in Delhi and 80 kits to schools in rural districts close to the national capital.

In the next phase, Starlink will work with NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) to identify 12 rural districts across the country, three from each region — North, South, East & West, to offer Internet services there. By the end of 2022, the company plans to operate at least 2,00,000 Starlink devices, out of which 1,60,000 will be in rural areas. According to last year’s report, nearly 28,000 villages in India have no access to cellular or Internet connections. The focus of Starlink is to provide wireless internet in such rural sections of India.

How Would Starlink’s Internet Work In India

For people not in the know, regular broadband internet works via a huge global network of undersea cables. Starlink ditches the sea and aims for the sky (literally) in its approach. It leveraged SpaceX’s rocket-making expertise to put over 1,400 Smallsat-class satellites in earth’s orbit. This satellite constellation in the earth’s orbit will beam the internet to its users. Starlink plans to put a total of 12,000 such satellites in the future to provide internet across the globe. Users will get a dish antenna, similar to a regular dish-TV, which will enable them to access the internet. It also promises a low latency of 20ms, which should be apt for gaming.

The Starlink service is operational in certain parts of the US and Mexico, where it is delivering up to 150Mbps speeds. These speeds would be more than enough for remote parts of India, accelerating the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making a ‘Digital India’. Also, it would allow people from remote locations to gain access to education, health services, and even communications support during natural disasters. Starlink may even strike a deal with Airline companies in India to offer uninterrupted high-speed internet in-flight.