Starlink, a satellite communications (satcom) company trying to provide global satellite broadband coverage plans to enter Indian territory with commercial services in 2022. The company has shared expected equipment and service cost for the Indian market. Sanjay Bhargava, India Head, Starlink, shared the cost/benefit analysis via a link in a LinkedIn post. The expected cost of the connection for the first year might go up to Rs 1,58,000 for the users in India.
Starlink Connection Equipment and Monthly Service Cost (Expected)
The base price of the equipment is $499, which is Rs 37,400 approximately. Further, the monthly service cost is $99, which is approximately Rs 7,425. So in the first month of purchasing the connection, users might have to pay up to Rs 45,000. From the second year onwards, the annual cost might come down to Rs 1,15,000. This is because the equipment of Starlink is a one-time purchase only. The taxes and levies that will come out of selling these connections would be a substantial revenue for the government. Starlink said that schools and healthcare centres could benefit a lot from satellite broadband connections. The company said that state and union territories could even choose districts that they want to include in the pilot project of providing cities/districts with 100% broadband coverage. The company is currently planning to apply for a commercial license in India. Starlink hopes to apply for the commercial license before or by January 31, 2022. If there are no major roadblocks, this will go accordingly, and the company then expects to start commercial services by April 2022. Further, Starlink plans on having over 200k terminals in India by the end of 2022. But if there are any delays, the commercial service rollout time for the company would increase by a few months. Starlink was recently blocked by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) from selling pre-bookings in India as it does not have a license or regulatory approval to do so.
