Jio Platforms, the telecom arm of India's conglomerate Reliance Industries, has announced a partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX to offer Starlink's satellite broadband internet services to its customers in India. The agreement, subject to regulatory approvals, will enable Jio to extend its offerings and sell Starlink equipment through its retail outlets and online storefronts.

Under the partnership, Jio will also provide customer service installation and activation support for Starlink equipment. This move marks a significant development in India's telecom landscape, as Jio aims to expand its reach and enhance the reliability and accessibility of high-speed broadband services across the country.

The partnership comes on the heels of a similar announcement by Airtel, India's second-largest telco, which also partnered with SpaceX to offer Starlink services to its customers. Both partnerships are pending regulatory approvals from the Indian government, specifically from IN-SPACe and the Department of Telecommunications.

Jio plans to offer SpaceX's internet services to enterprise customers nationwide through its channels, with the potential to explore other complementary areas of cooperation to utilize their infrastructure in India. This development is significant, given India's massive subscriber base of over 950 million users.

Notably, this is not SpaceX's first attempt to enter the Indian market. In 2022, the company had to refund preorders of its Starlink equipment after the Indian government called out the company for "booking/rendering the satellite internet service" without obtaining necessary approvals.

The latest moves come just weeks after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the U.S., where he met with Musk and President Donald Trump, signing a deal for a global subsea cable project. The partnership between Jio and SpaceX is seen as a significant step towards expanding high-speed broadband services in India, particularly in rural areas where connectivity remains a challenge.

It's worth noting that Jio has been working on its own satellite-based broadband service, JioSpaceFiber, through a joint venture with SES. The telco has already tested the service in four districts in 2023 and received its In-SPACe approval last year. Similarly, Airtel has been exploring satellite internet through OneWeb. The dynamics of these partnerships will be interesting to watch, given the telcos' existing satellite broadband businesses.

Despite initial opposition from Jio and Airtel to the Indian government's move to ease Starlink's entry into the market via administrative means, the latest partnerships suggest a willingness to collaborate and bring high-speed internet services to Indian customers. As Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, stated, "We are looking forward to working with Jio and receiving authorization from the Government of India to provide more people, organizations, and businesses with access to Starlink's high-speed internet services."

The implications of this partnership are far-reaching, with the potential to bridge the digital divide in India and empower communities and businesses across the country. As the Indian government continues to push for digital transformation, partnerships like these will play a critical role in achieving that vision.