Musk Blames India’s ‘Oligarchs’ After 5 Years Of Starlink Regulatory Roadblocks

Elon Musk is back on X, trying to browbeat governments, and this time his target is India. After more than five years of trying to enter the Indian market, Starlink is still waiting to begin commercial operations. You can imagine how frustrating that wait must feel for a company that first tried to launch here in 2021, has since obtained key approvals, built infrastructure, adapted its operations to Indian regulations and even partnered with major telecom players. Yet the final green light is still missing. Musk has now had enough, accusing unnamed “oligarchs” of blocking Starlink to protect a “monopolistic chokehold” over Indian consumers.

“Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people. You can guess who they are. This is a crime against the people of India,” Musk posted. He did not name the “oligarchs”, but the message is clear enough. India’s telecom market is heavily concentrated around two names: Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Airtel. Together, they dominate the wireless market more than 80%, while smaller operators have struggled to keep pace.

And this is where the business argument gets interesting. India may not have a legal telecom monopoly, but its market has increasingly become a Jio-Airtel duopoly. Consumers have already seen mobile tariffs rise after years of ultra-cheap data. In 2024, the major private telecom operators pushed through significant tariff hikes, raising questions about what happens when competition becomes concentrated among fewer powerful players. That does not prove a cartel or price-fixing, but it does mean consumers have fewer major alternatives when prices go up.

And for any person, one post like this would have been enough to make a point. But this is Elon Musk, so of course, another post followed. Musk said Starlink in India would enable “high-speed, affordable internet connectivity” for people who cannot afford current prices or do not have a connection at all. That is quite a pitch, especially for a country that already has some of the cheapest internet prices in the world.

The Indian government has hit back, calling Musk’s claims “baseless and misconceived”. New Delhi says three satellite communication companies have been granted licences and all three must clear the same security requirements. Their security assessments are currently underway. Only after that can they move to the next step: spectrum allocation. The government says all three are broadly at the same regulatory stage.

Basically, the government is saying that this is not Musk versus Jio versus Airtel. This is Musk versus the Indian rulebook.

Starlink is an internet service provider, but it does not rely on cables or fibre networks. Starlink uses a constellation of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit. This is especially useful in remote areas where cables and traditional infrastructure have not reached. All you need is a Starlink dish with a relatively clear view of the sky. Set up the dish, connect your devices, and you are online.

We also get why Musk is interested. India has more than a billion internet users. That is an enormous digital market, and the numbers are only rising. For Musk, that means a huge business opportunity. The satellite broadband market itself could be worth billions of dollars in the coming years.

And Starlink has not exactly been sitting idle. SpaceX says it has spent years preparing specifically for India, building ground infrastructure, establishing gateways and adapting its operations to Indian security, regulatory and data requirements. It says Indian user data will remain within India. Starlink has also secured major regulatory approvals and partnered with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel for distribution.

But does India even need Starlink? India already has some of the cheapest internet in the world. One GB of data costs around $0.01 to $0.10, while the global average is around $3. So the internet is already extremely cheap.

By all accounts, Musk will charge more. Estimates suggest the first-year cost of Starlink installation in India could exceed Rs 34,000, or more than $350. That is just the equipment and installation. Then comes the monthly subscription, which could be around Rs 8,600, close to $88.

He does, however, have one major selling point: remote connectivity. Starlink can bring the internet to remote areas and pockets where mobile towers get damaged. It can become a lifeline, particularly in places where traditional telecom infrastructure is difficult to build or restore.

So it is not as if India is against Starlink. But there are security concerns. Starlink’s record in India is not clean. Indian authorities recovered Starlink equipment in two sensitive operations in 2024: one involving a major drug seizure near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and another during an Army search operation in Manipur, where a Starlink dish, router and cable were recovered along with weapons.

Why is that a problem? Because Starlink was not licensed to operate in India at the time. So what was it doing there? Musk says Starlink’s satellite beams were switched off over India and were never active in the first place. But the incidents still raised national security questions.

Musk’s track record in India has been patchy. His electric-car company, after much back and forth, finally entered India in 2025. Yet the rollout has been painfully slow. Tesla has not even registered 1,000 vehicles since deliveries began. The cars are expensive, and the company still relies heavily on imported vehicles rather than making them in India.

There is another irony here. Starlink itself has previously fought with Indian telecom operators over how satellite spectrum should be allocated. Starlink wanted spectrum to be assigned administratively, while Jio had argued for auctions. India ultimately chose administrative allocation for satellite spectrum, which was closer to Starlink’s preferred model.