Elon Musk Wants To Introduce Starlink In India: What Is It And How It Works

During his meeting with PM Modi, Elon Musk said he was “hopefully looking forward” to bringing Starlink to India.

New Delhi: Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of his three-day state visit to the US, where he met several prominent personalities from across the spectrum. During his meeting with PM Modi, Elon Musk said he was “hopefully looking forward” to bringing Starlink to India.

“I am a fan of Modi. India is great for solar energy investment. We are also hoping to bring Starlink internet to India,” PM Modi said.

What Is Starlink

Starlink, a satellite constellation developed by SpaceX, uses a low Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, video calls and more.

Leveraging advanced satellites and user hardware coupled with deep experience with both spacecraft and on-orbit operations, Starlink aims to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to users all over the world.

How Starlink Works

Most satellite internet services come from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at 35,786 km. As a result, the round trip data time between the user and satellite—also known as latency—is high, making it nearly impossible to support streaming, online gaming, video calls or other high data rate activities.

Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km, and cover the entire globe. Because Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, latency is significantly lower—around 25 ms vs 600+ ms.

Starlink Kit arrives with everything you need to get online in minutes including your Starlink, WiFi router, cables and base. It is self-orienting and connects in minutes as long as it has a clear view of the sky. Starlink promises to withstand extreme cold, heat, hail, sleet, heavy rain, gale force winds, and even rocket engines.

Starlink not only leads the industry in innovations to reduce satellite brightness, but also on-orbit debris mitigation—meeting or exceeding all regulatory and industry standards.