Elon Musk’s Satellite Internet Launching In India By 2022: How To Book Today? Expected Speed?

Elon Musk’s satellite internet project Starlink will hit the floors in India next year. Upon entering an Indian address on the landing page, the message displayed states that “Starlink is targeting coverage in your area in 2022. Availability is limited.”

Access is currently enjoyed by customers in the UK, US and Canada

The price is a refundable $99 which consists of a satellite dish, a tripod and a Wi-Fi router. One can enrol themselves using a UK, US or Canada address. Given that currently Starlink is in its beta phase, customers will be served on a first come first serve basis.

What is Starlink?

Starlink aims at launching a total of 12,000 (960 of which currently in orbit) satellites on the spaceX Falcon 9 rockets, post which high speed satellite internet will be available all over the globe. The launch happens in batches of 60 satellites.

These satellites being closer to the surface of earth, churn out encouraging figures concerning latency and interference- key ingredients to a better internet service experience. 

Speed and Latency

Currently Starlink is offering thundering speeds of 150 mbps and median latencies of 594 to 612ms, a figure that Musk vows to shrink to 20-40Ms.

As more satellites are launched, more ground stations could be installed along with upgradation of networking software- all of this contributing to better future data speeds, latency and uptime. 

Satellite Internet vs Cellular

Its main competition is cellular internet which takes less effort to set up. It challenges costly fiber optic cable which cannot be laid in remote and rural areas.

Cellular also has an edge because of exciting new developments such as the imminent launch of 5G, and with several attempts by companies like Facebook to provide internet access to unserved areas.

But Musk defends his project by tweeting that cellular internet trumps satellite in populated urban areas, whereas satellite internet shines in low to medium population density areas.

What This Means For India

Over half of the billion-plus indian population are detached in a technology overrun world-since they lack internet access, as per Aug 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) report. 

In a stark contrast 86% of the American population enjoy internet access privilege.

To capitalise on this and the status of being one of the fastest growing economies, India offers incredible opportunities since internet users are set to grow 23%.

Both Musk’s objectives and India’s technology aspirations align since Starlink aims to serve technologically challenged areas and provide high speed internet for cheap to millions of users around the world.

What The Future Holds 

Other big names will soon join the fray as Hughes India, a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, has partnered with ISRO to set up the infrastructure that will provide internet services to 5,000 remote villages in Eastern Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur. Instead of Musk’s Falcon rockets they will instead use ISRO’s GSAT-19 and GSAT-11.

Bharti Airtel which recently partnered with Qualcomm to launch 5G in India, is also mulling over plans to be a high speed net provider with the help of OneWeb’s LEO constellation of internet satellites. They could also consult with ISRO to develop cost effective access terminals.
Elon Musk’s Satellite-Internet Speed Will Be 300 Mbps, learn more.