Starlink India push: Elon Musk’s firm in talks with data centres, telcos; groundwork begins for broadband rollout

Elon Musk-owned Starlink has begun groundwork to set up terrestrial infrastructure in India, holding advanced talks with data centre operators, internet exchange providers, fibre players and telecom majors, as the satellite broadband firm prepares to launch services in a potentially high-growth market.According to people aware of the matter, the company is in discussions with data centre operators, including Sify Technologies, STT, Equinix and CtrlS Datacenters, internet exchange providers such as DE-CIX and Extreme, fibre infrastructure firms like Microscan, and telcos Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Tata Communications, reported ET. These tie-ups will form the terrestrial ecosystem needed to anchor satellite connectivity at scale, with analysts estimating an initial capital expenditure of around Rs 500 crore.Letters of intent are expected to be sent this month. Starlink has already secured the necessary clearances from Indian authorities and been allotted trial bandwidth. The company has finalised 17 locations for ground stations, which will connect its low-earth orbit satellites with terrestrial fibre and data networks.“Even as LEO satellites beam connectivity directly to user terminals, Indian regulations mandate that all downlink traffic be stored and routed locally,” a person aware of the matter was quoted as saying by ET, adding that early tie-ups with fibre and data centres show Starlink is gearing for scale.The US company will compete with Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio-SES JV in India’s satcom market, where Jeff Bezos-led Amazon Kuiper and Apple’s partner Globalstar have also applied for permits. The Indian space economy is projected to grow to $44 billion by 2033, according to IN-SPACe.Starlink has also begun signing integration agreements. DE-CIX India last week confirmed a partnership with the company. “The integration will be crucial for maintaining high-speed throughputs especially for latency-sensitive applications like streaming, video conferencing, and online gaming,” said Sudhir Kunder, chief business officer at DE-CIX India, which handles 11 Tbps throughput across 36 PoPs in five cities. Extreme IXP also confirmed that Starlink is connected to its Mumbai port.The government recently granted Starlink a unified licence after it agreed to domestic security rules, including mandatory local routing of traffic, no copying or decrypting of Indian data overseas, and the establishment of earth station gateways within India. Minister of state for communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said such services will also generate employment through installation and maintenance of networks and user terminals.Starlink will use Aadhaar authentication for subscriber verification in India and currently has the capacity to onboard about 20 lakh customers.