Elon Musk‘s Starlink has established partnerships with India’s telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, and Chairman of RPG Enterprises, Harsh Goenka has aptly dubbed this alliance the “new 3M” – representing Musk, Mittal, and Mukesh – a powerful trio poised to transform India’s digital infrastructure landscape.
“The old 3M made its mark with Post-its. The new 3M—Musk, Mittal & Mukesh—are sticking together for Indian dominance,” wrote Harsh Goenka, Chairman of RPG Enterprises, in his recent post on X.
The agreements, announced within hours of each other, establish both telecommunications corporations as primary distributors for Starlink’s satellite internet equipment and services across India. The partnerships remain contingent upon regulatory clearances from IN-SPACe and the Department of Telecommunications, approvals that SpaceX has been pursuing since 2022.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio intends to incorporate Starlink technology into its existing broadband ecosystem while utilizing its extensive retail network for equipment sales. Concurrently, Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel will integrate Starlink’s capabilities into its current product portfolio to enhance service offerings.
For India’s population of nearly 950 million internet users, these partnerships promise to address persistent connectivity challenges in remote regions by providing high-speed internet access to historically underserved communities.
Final implementation remains subject to regulatory approval, which SpaceX has been pursuing since 2022.
