What is Elon Musk’s Starlink all about? | Explained Premium

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio partner with SpaceX's Starlink for satellite internet in India, facing regulatory hurdles.

The story so far:

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have signed distribution pacts with SpaceX Corp.’s Starlink service to bring satellite internet access to India. The distribution pacts are a reversal from the telecom industry’s reluctance to quickly make the Starlink service available in India without auctions for the satellite airwaves.

Starlink is a low-earth orbit constellation of over 7,000 satellites that provide internet access to users with ground terminals, which the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX is already selling in around 40 countries. The satellites constantly orbit the earth, blanketing practically its entire habitable surface with coverage, as long as a given terminal on the ground has visibility to the sky.

The service offers speeds of around 100 megabits per second, comparable with many home broadband connections. However, the “latency,” or the time it takes for a given data packet to travel between a user and terrestrial internet networks, is higher than wired broadband connections in offices and homes.

Satellites work in conjunction with ground stations on earth, which are physically connected to the internet like any other network and beam up connections wirelessly to satellites above them at any given point.

In India, Starlink may not be that useful in cities and towns with good 5G connectivity or wired broadband coverage, as local speeds and reliability will far exceed what a satellite link currently offers, even with technological advancements. However, in rural and remote areas where “terrestrial” networks have not penetrated deeply, Starlink can offer decent connectivity almost instantly.

There are two costs associated with Starlink: the user terminal — essentially a router — required to access the satellite network and the monthly access fee to stay connected. At present, a residential kit in parts of the U.S. costs $149, while a portable “roaming” kit costs $349. Import duty, GST and social welfare surcharges applicable on satellite equipment may push up the hardware price by around 30%.