Industrialist Mukesh Ambani (File Photo: PTI) Image Credit source: PTI
India’s market can now become the new destination of ‘trade war’ of billionaires. In this, on one side will be Mukesh Ambani, the richest man of Asia and chairman of Reliance Industries, and on the other side will be Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest industrialists. Oh no-no, these two are not really going to do any war. But very soon these two may clash to establish supremacy in the market.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Elon Musk during his US visit, inviting him to set up a Tesla factory in India. After this, Elon Musk also indicated to come to India, and also said that he can bring his ‘Starlink’ to India, so sir, this Starlink is going to be the reason for the real ‘war’.
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Will ‘Starlink’ challenge Jio’s supremacy?
Actually Elon Musk wants to bring his Starlink satellite broadband to India. In this way, he wants to take broadband to every village. But he did not say how his move would affect the government’s satellite broadband auction, and how much it would affect Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. Mukesh Ambani can resist Starlink coming to India, because he is the owner of ‘Reliance Jio’, which dominates India’s telecom and broadband market.
Starlink does not want spectrum auction
India is now the most populous country in the world. That is, the world’s largest broadband or internet market. This is the reason that a ‘trade war’ can break out between the two billionaires in this field. But another reason for this is the proposal of Starlink. Elon Musk’s company does not want the government to auction the cord for satellite broadband, instead it wants it to be licensed just for it.
Starlink has been lobbying for this in India for a long time. He says that it is a natural resource, so companies should just be given licenses to use it, as is happening in the rest of the world. Spectrum auctions increase geographical restrictions which ultimately increase the cost. While Reliance Jio opposes it.
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Reliance Jio has publicly expressed its disagreement with Starlink’s proposal and has asked the government to auction it. Reliance Jio says that foreign satellite service providers can provide voice and data services in the coming time and this can have an impact on traditional telecom players. That’s why spectrum should be auctioned.
What will happen next, only time will tell. But one thing is certain that this ‘trade war’ will benefit the customers in the end, because internet service will remain cheap for them.