Starlink Ready For India, Will Help In Rural Connectivity: Elon Musk

SpaceX chief Elon Musk said he is eager to launch the company's low cost, reliable internet Starlink in India, which already operates in 150 countries.

Speaking to investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath in the People of WTF podcast, Musk said Starlink's strength lies in the thousands of low-Earth-orbit satellites that deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity worldwide. "There are laser links between the satellites, so it forms sort of a laser mesh. Let's say if cables are damaged or cut, like fiber cables, the satellites can communicate between each other and provide connectivity," he said.

Starlink satellites orbit at about 550 kilometres, far lower than traditional geostationary satellites at 36,000 kilometres, allowing faster response times, Musk added. This makes them particularly helpful for disaster areas. "If an area has been hit with some kind of natural disaster, floods or fires or earthquakes, that tends to damage the ground infrastructure. But the Starlink satellites still work," he said. The tech and space billionaire further said that in disaster situations, Starlink provides free internet.

He gave the example of the recent Red Sea cable cuts, which impacted connectivity, even as Starlink continued to operate without disruption.

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Musk also explained the advantage of Starlink networks in rural areas. "In cities, you've got these cell towers that are only a kilometer apart. But cell towers tend to be inefficient in the countryside. So, in rural rural areas is where you tend to have the worst internet because it's very expensive and difficult to lay all the fiber optic cables or to have high bandwidth cellular towers. So, Starlink is very complementary to the existing telecom companies. It tends to serve the least served," he said.

The Tesla chief also warned that physics don't allow Starlink to become efficient in densely populated areas with competitive local network providers. He said it is complementary to cellular networks, not a competitor. "Physics doesn't allow us to beat something that's one kilometre away," he explained, adding that Starlink could still serve 1-2 per cent of users in urban pockets lacking fiber.