‘Much appreciated:’ Musk on Reliance Starlink stand as Rubio set to meet Ambani

NEW DELHI: Elon Musk’s blow hot and cold stand for getting Starlink access to India has now entered a conciliatory phase after the tech trillionaire was all fire on X last week. The change in tone comes at a time when US secretary of state Marco Rubio is in India and will visit the world’s largest oil refinery in Jamnagar that’s owned by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani — who was targeted by Musk last week.“Much appreciated,” Musk said on X late Friday night in response to Reliance Industries first reply to his charges on Friday, where Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate had said: “We welcome competition in satellite communications, including Starlink. Every player, Jio included, must… abide by the laws and policies of the land…. As govt of India has stated, it applies the same process to every applicant, Indian or foreign. Jio's own satellite services await clearances.”Starlink also responded to Reliance post, saying it has “worked closely with regulators, industry and operators in India for five plus years, and built a network of dedicated systems, gateways, and other infrastructure all in-country to exclusively serve Indian traffic safely and securely and all with the requisite government approvals. Starlink is ready to connect India with high-speed internet.”Sunil Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Musk’s Starlink have got licences and are preparing to start satcom service here so that even remote areas where laying ground infra for broadband is not possible can get the same. Billionaire Jeff Bezos-led Amazon's Project Kuiper is eying a licence to do so.Starlink clearance is being seen as part of the larger Indo-US ties with several factors being part of the play including the trade deal and threat of tariffs over buying Russian oil.Sunil Bharti Mittal had this Wednesday said the company was significantly ahead of Starlink in securing approvals for satellite communications services in India. “We are already waiting for approvals, I am significantly ahead, we got our approvals five years back, so I will be happy to get my approvals a few days before it (Starlink),” Mittal had said at an event.Reliance Jio has proposed a constellation of around 1,600 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and 23 ground stations to provide sovereign satellite internet connectivity across India.Last Wednesday, Musk had accused “certain oligarchs” of “blocking” Starlink’s entry to India without naming anyone but saying “you can guess who they are” and then named Ambani over the next two days in a series of X posts.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.