Airtel ahead of Musk's Starlink in queue for satcom services, applied 5 years ago: Sunil Mittal

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Wednesday said he was "significantly ahead" of Elon Musk's Starlink in the queue for launching satellite communication services in India, asserting that his company had applied for permission five years ago but was yet to receive the go-ahead.

"I think I am significantly ahead in the queue from him. I applied five years back," Mittal said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026, responding to a question on Musk's recent remarks against India's telecom billionaires.

Mittal said Airtel's ground network had been ready for the past three years, while satellites had been hovering over India for five years.

"We don't have the permission, so we'll be very happy to get it at least a few days before him," he said.

Last week, Musk alleged that "certain oligarchs" were blocking Starlink's entry into India to protect their monopolistic hold over the market.

"Unfortunately, we are being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people," Musk said in a post on X, adding that it was a "crime against the people of India".

The government later rejected the allegations, saying India's regulatory framework for satellite communication services was fair and non-discriminatory and that suggestions of deliberate delays affecting any particular company were "baseless and misconceived".

The Ministry of Communications said all three companies licensed to provide Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) services using non-geosynchronous satellite orbit-based systems were at broadly the same regulatory stage.

"Security assessment as part of this process is currently under way in respect of all the three licensees," the ministry said.

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had also said last week that India does not allow monopolies in any sector.

"Our job is to be able to provide the bouquet of services to every single customer. It is for the customer to choose in a free market which service he or she prefers, and within that service bouquet, which company's service he or she prefers," Scindia said during a briefing at the India Mobile Congress.

Scindia said Musk's Starlink, Reliance Jio's satellite venture Jio Satcom and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb had secured licences to provide satellite communication services.

Amazon's Project Kuiper has expressed interest and would have to follow the established procedure, he added.

The minister said spectrum would be assigned once the government finalised the revenue-based charging framework and individual operators fulfilled security requirements.