There was a flicker in 2021 when Starlink began to accept pre-orders for its satellite broadband service, from potential buyers in India. Now when we look back at that moment in history, it becomes clear quite how premature that $99 preorder (that, in currency conversion rates at the time, was around ₹7,200) was. Starlink’s license was then nowhere in sight and they’d have known it (and chances are by the time you read this, it’s still not final). Good that the government clamped down on these preorders. Elon Musk’s companies are known for this. In 2016, they took $1000 in preorders for the Tesla Model 3s from Indians who were gullible enough. Irrespective of all present excitement around Tesla too, quite when any EV from the automaker’s portfolio goes on sale in India, is anyone’s guess. We’re 9 years down the road, from that moment too. This diatribe was solely on the observation that Musk’s companies have this bad habit of collecting money from Indians, even before anything close to regulatory clearances are in their inbox. An idiom comes to mind. A fool and his money are easily parted.
Vision: One would have expected Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio to have been competitors to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service in India. Bharti Airtel is already part of the alliance with Eutelsat OneWeb, in which the UK Government, French company Eutelsat, and SoftBank, also hold stakes. Over the past couple of years, we heard Reliance Jio actively exploring the path towards a satellite broadband service (tentatively referenced as JioSpaceFiber by citizens of the World Wide Web). Airtel and Jio having to partner with Starlink and sell their wares across retail touchpoints, leaves me a little perplexed, particularly as someone who closely follows these companies’ developments. Do not tell me the primary motivation is technology sharing. It isn’t.
Both telecom players insist the Starlink agreements are in place, with a vision to widen the connectivity mesh. “This collaboration enhances our ability to bring world-class high-speed broadband to even the most remote parts of India, ensuring that every individual, business, and community has reliable internet,” as explained by Gopal Vittal, managing director and vice chairman, Bharti Airtel Ltd. Quite how Starlink’s cost structure allows for that to happen, I’ll be a keen witness.
Circles: That leads me to what Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program meant to bring high-speed internet access to rural areas in the US, said as he exited his role after not being reappointed. In an email to colleagues. He termed satellite broadband as “worse internet” and “stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.” Now we want to base internet connectivity in rural areas on the same satellite broadband tech, same company and the same rich man?
Tech: I call satellite internet as a melding between how you access mobile broadband on your phones wirelessly from a tower, and how you may receive direct to home (DTH) television service from a satellite to your home with a dish antenna. Starlink will also have an outdoor unit (a satellite receiver or antenna, aimed at the satellites in the sky), and that’ll be connected to a router that’ll be sitting inside your home. There are different types of satellite that are being used for delivering internet and voice. Starlink uses LEO, or Low Earth Orbit satellites. Starlink’s constellation, at this time, consists of 6750 satellites, at a distance of around 550km from earth — by far the biggest constellation of its kind. LEO satellites operate in space at 2,000 km or less, above the earth’s surface, are comparatively less costly owing to smaller sizes, but potentially shorter life spans. The satellites use Ku-Band and E-Band antennas beaming signals earthward.
Airtel would hope Starlink compliments their broadband product portfolio including 5G NSA or non-standalone network, Xstream fiber broadband, 5G fixed wireless access or FWA called Xstream AirFiber, as well as the upcoming IPTV or internet protocol television services. Reliance Jio has the Jio Fiber and Jio AirFiber broadband products, alongside the 5G SA or standalone mobile networks. Those price points, which have been achieved after years of competition, cost management and use of smart technology, will not be matched by Starlink in a long, long time. Mark my words.
SAVE AND REPLACE
Turns out, a piece of news that’s akin to a calming hand on a furrowed brow. Many of you may remember my long standing grouse with Xiaomi phones and tablets, irrespective of the price — the GetApps store, which in no way, shape or form, fits the premiumisation journey that Xiaomi is on. An update is, the smartphone giants are replacing that with PhonePe’s Indus App Store. On new phones, as well as on existing phones. The Indus App Store will be better in every respect — multilingual, and voice search included. At the time of writing this, I am yet to notice the replacement happen on any Xiaomi device within my reach. But it should happen soon. A more refined alternative to the Google Play Store. Better late than never, as they say.
POT AND KETTLE?
OpenAI, in a new policy proposal submitted to the US government, has called DeepSeek “state-subsidized” and “state-controlled,” called for its ban, and wants that to extend to any AI models emerging from Chinese start-ups (it is easy to label any entity as government supported). This sort of pitch from OpenAI shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model, has really set an AI cat amongst the AI pigeons. We had analysed DeepSeek’s achievement in detail, earlier in the year.
I’ll lay it out for you. OpenAI is as closely aligned to the US government, as perhaps they allege DeepSeek to be with the authorities in China. In the past year, a lot has happened. OpenAI appointed former NSA director Paul Nakasone, to its board. That tenure coincided with often controversial surveillance programs. Is this a suggestion that OpenAI might be integrating national security expertise into its governance? OpenAI also dropped its previous ban on military collaboration, which means Department of Defence contracts, are now on the agenda — and wheels are already in motion with the Air Force Research Laboratory deploying ChatGPT Enterprise.
Since the turn of this year, OpenAI launched a secure platform ChatGPT Gov meant forU.S. government agencies to process sensitive data. The coincidence at least in terms of timing, is CEO Sam Altman’s $1 million donation to President Trump’s inauguration fund, as well as OpenAI’s pivotal role in the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure project.
Now, OpenAI (and indeed Google) are urging the US government to allow them to train AI models using data they otherwise don’t own. Or as OpenAI writes in their proposal, “The federal government can both secure Americans’ freedom to learn from AI, and avoid forfeiting our AI lead to the PRC by preserving American AI models’ ability to learn from copyrighted material.”
Another interesting element to these allegations — US companies including Microsoft, Perplexity, and Amazon host DeepSeek’s models, on their cloud computing infrastructure. We’ll see how this unfolds.
You must read about Sam Altman’s conversation with our Editor-in-Chief R Sukumar, from a few weeks ago, when he clearly said DeepSeek’s claimed numbers seem to have a few zeros missing.
PITCH AND PLAY
In July last year, Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vi bumped up the price of prepaid recharge packs as well as postpaid plans, for phone connections. There has been a somewhat gloomy outlook towards India’s telecom space since then, one that over the past two decades, bucked all conventional wisdom to deliver ultimate affordability—the kind not seen anywhere in the world. That gloom may begin to lift now.
Reliance Jio, just as this week began, launched a new ₹299 prepaid recharge option that bundles a lot with it. There is a 90-day subscription to JioHotstar that includes access on smart TVs and streaming in 4K resolution. Mind you, most bundled subscriptions with mobile recharge plans or postpaid plans, are often limited in type and number of devices they’d work with, as well as limited to HD resolutions. This should be good enough to get you through the Indian Premier League season, which begins later this week.
More interesting, at least in my book, is the second pitch — a 50-day free trial for JioFiber wired broadband or the JioAirFiber wireless broadband connection at your home. Jio would really hope to convert trials into active subscriptions, and good timing too, considering the broadband conversation that’s been sparked due to Starlink. My expectation is, the 5G FWA might be a rather convenient choice for many, since it doesn’t involve the cumbersome wiring installation. The thing is, Jio’s broadband plans have always had extra value — the set-top box (STB) bundle for TV includes more than 800 Live TV channels as well as more than 11 streaming app subscriptions. That’s your TV viewing covered too.
Expect Airtel to respond. They may already have, by the time you read this.
Leave a Reply