Daybreak - Starlink’s deal with Jio-Airtel is more optics than real partnership

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Elon Musk’s Starlink is just months away from launching in India. Amazon’s Kuiper will follow in 2026. The satcom green light is finally here — the regulator’s long-awaited guidelines are out, and the Department of Telecom has drawn up its strict new rulebook. Surprisingly, the satellite players aren’t blinking. Even more surprising? After years of resistance, Jio and Airtel have suddenly struck deals with Starlink.But here’s the twist: behind the scenes, neither telco seems eager to actually sell Starlink terminals. So why the sudden handshake? And what’s really going on under all this satellite sparkle?Tune in to find out how India’s broadband future is being reshaped.Tell us what you thought of this episode. You can text us your feedback on WhatsApp at [phone]Apply here to join The Ken as a product designerDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Look at our headline today. You would think this story is probably about tech.

But it is way more than that. It is about politics, money and power. Early in March this year, two of India's telecom giants, Airtel and Geo, made headlines. Within 12 hours of each other, they each claim to have struck a commercial deal with Staling, Elon Musk's satellite internet service, the same Stirling that they once opposed toothed and nail. And then, there was silence. No media frenzy, no dramatic protest from the industry. It seemed more like the kind of quiet that,

comes with the realization that something long resisted is now inevitable. You see, for years, satellite-based internet in India was stuck in a regulatory holding pattern. Delcos had been lobbying hard to keep satellite communications or SATCOM at bay. But in the background, the ground kept shifting. The country's internet growth had begun to stall. The gaps, rural, remote, unconnected were becoming too. obvious to ignore. By March this year, the pressure had built up. Sources say that a little nudge from the Prime Minister's office helped to move things along.

The Telecom regulator released its long-awaited recommendations for satellite communication. The Department of Telecom, for its part, added a new checklist of strict security conditions. And just like that, Starlink now has a clear path to beam broadband from space. Amazon's Quieper is expected to follow by mid-20206. So all these telcos that had once blocked the entry of Satcom are now officially in business with them. But before you start picturing millions of starling dishes popping up across Indian rooftops, hold that thought. Because this is not quite the partnership that it appears to be. And while the headlines make it sound like a win-win, the real story of cost, competition,

control and convenience is far murkier than you think. Because what is really happening between Starlink, Geo and Airtel is not just about satellites. It is about power, positioning and a deal that might be more optics than action. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Dha Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rahal Philposed and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Monday, the 9th of June.

So let's rewind to May 20th of this year. That is when India's communications minister said something that was quite bold. He said India could see the fastest satellite communications rollout in the world. Now, that statement was not random. Because for years, telcos like Airtel and Geo fought hard against satellite internet players like Starling. Lobbing, objections, red tape, you know, the works. But now, Starlink has a letter of intent from the Indian government,

which is a green light to start operations. So what changed? Well, a part of it is political. Sources say that there was a nudge directly from the Prime Minister's office. They wanted to push things forward and the telecom regulators' recommendations on Satcom had been sitting idle for months. Something had to give. So Airtel and Gio moved fast.

They announced deals with Starling, not because they suddenly loved satellite tech, but because they wanted to control the narrative. Even insiders admitted it to my colleague, the Ken editor Sima Singh. As one Satcom executive put it, and I'm quoting, In our heart of hearts, we know this is the best we can get after all these years of opposition. In public, it was smiles and press.

statements, but in private, it was quite different. Gio, for instance, treats the deal very cautiously. A senior executive there said Gio is not just a distributor, no tech transfer, no deep partnership, it's just going to be about sales. Airtel Stone, meanwhile, is a little more optimistic, but again, limited. They point out how expensive it is to serve remote areas with fiber, and that is where Starlink might help, offering. satellite backhaul in places where cable just cannot reach.

So, on paper, you see, it is a win-win. Starling gets an addressable market of 600 million people. Telcos, on the other hand, get to say that they are using futuristic technology. Share prices go up, the government looks good, but under all of this, things are not obviously that neat. One industry expert summed it up. He said, and I'm quoting, Starlink doesn't work with telcos. it bypasses them.

But India is different. The prepaid system here is tough to crack without help. So this deal is not a deep integration. It is just the door creaking open. So how does the math even add up? To find out, stay tuned for the next segment. Hi, I am briefly pausing this episode to give you a quick behind-the-scenes update from all of us here at the ken. We are working on some big, bold projects this year.

think events, think community, think leadership training. These are some real non-linear creative leaps that we're taking. But to bring all of these ideas to life, we need great design. Which is why we are looking for an ambitious product designer to join our team, someone with two to four years of experience in UI, UX and editorial design who can think deeply and design thoughtfully. Now, if that sounds like you or someone you know, check out the details in the show notes below.

All right, with that out of the way, let's get back to the episode. Let us get to the real question. Can this actually work? And let's talk in numbers. Geo and Aetel sell data at some of the lowest rates in the world, around $10 per GB. For satellite to be used as a backhaul, it would need to cost around $2 to $3 per GB. Right now, that is just not possible. One Satcom executive said it pretty straightforward.

They said, and I'm quoting, it doesn't make economic sense. Satcom backhaul is way too expensive to replace telco's current systems. Another added that telcos have enormous buying power. When they float a backhaul tender, they negotiate prices down. And the result is that Starlink might just take $2 to $3 per month per user. And that is not sustainable. So, the regulator has suggested using the universal service obligation fund or USOF to help subsidize Satcom terminals. But telcos have contributed to that fund, which is why they are not exactly thrilled about the idea of it being used to support their new competition.

And then there is another layer. Satcom bandwidth is limited. Starlink can't just give away precious capacity to telcos at lower prices. Because if they sell directly to customers, they might earn $8 to $10 per month, which is way better returns. Still, in India, direct sales are not easy. Do-it-yourself setups do not really work here. And even savvy users expect someone to install the terminal for them. So, Starlink does need help for ground infrastructure, customer service and local presence.

That is why a telco tie-up, even a shallow one, matters. But here's the thing. No matter how they price it, Starlink will not be able to match Indian broadband rates, not even close. In some markets, Starlink charges $80 a month. The terminal itself can cost anywhere from $299 to $1,000. Prices vary widely. There is just no consistency.

So even if Starlink slashes prices in India, which it might, it still cannot beat the economics of GEO and EAT, Intel's data plans. And that brings us to the bigger picture. India's internet growth is stalling, especially in mobile. Fix broadband, meanwhile, is just starting to grow. Gio and Eitel are pushing hard with fixed wireless access, using 5G to deliver broadband to homes. Gio added one million new FWA connections in a month, which is fixed wireless access connections. Airtel's numbers are climbing up too. But there is a catch. All of this runs on mobile infrastructure and mobile has limits. As more people use FWA or fixed wireless access, 5G speeds are dropping. Experts say that in

most countries, fixed fiber is the backbone. Mobile is the fallback. But in India, the opposite is happening. Fiber is patchy. Mobile networks are doing all the heavy lifting and they are getting strained. And that is where Satcom could step in. Not to compete head on with telcos, but to fill the gaps, to reach more remote areas, to serve customers who need reliable internet where no fiber exists. But make no mistake. This is not about replacing geo or airtel. It is about complementing them, even if that comes with friction. Behind the scenes, telcos are already gearing up to challenge the SATCOM policy. They say it could disrupt the competitive ballots.

Because while they fight on one front, they are also trying to monetize their own 5G investments. And there is one last twist. GEO and Aetel already have existing satellite partnerships. But those are mostly B2B or government-focused. Starlink, by contrast, is built for customers. And that is what makes this such a dense start. Everybody's watching, everybody is hedging and no one, not even Elon Musk, knows exactly how it will play out.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Disubscribe, head to the Ken.com and click on the red. subscribe button on top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted by Snikda Sharma and edited by Rajiv Siyah.