Musk vows affordable Starlink in India days before Ambani's record Jio IPO

BENGALURU, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said he would price Starlink's satellite internet service affordably in India to take on Mukesh Ambani's ‌low-cost Reliance Jio, escalating his attacks on the rival billionaire days before ‌Jio's parent launches India's largest-ever IPO.

Jio Platforms, which owns the telecom arm, is targeting a valuation of $106 ​billion in the offering. Much like SpaceX-owned Starlink, Jio's own satellite venture is also awaiting final security clearance to launch.

Cheap data is the playbook that built Jio in India, and the one Musk has used in markets like Kenya to unsettle local telecom ‌players. SpaceX now plans to ⁠enter the mobile carrier market itself, starting in the US.

Musk did not specify prices for India, where mobile data costs about 8 ⁠cents per gigabyte, among the lowest in the world.

"Obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable," ​he said ​in a post on his social media ​platform X on Saturday.

"The reality is ‌that competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, as it always does. Ambani's profits will be lower, but he is not going out of business," Musk added.

The billionaire's remarks were the latest in a series of X posts where he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and ‌Ambani of stalling Starlink's entry into one ​of the world's biggest internet markets to favour market ​leader Jio.

The posts have marked ​a sharp turn for Musk, who has long enjoyed a warm ‌public rapport with Modi.

India's government has denied ​any bias in ​its approval process, noting that the three satellite ventures seeking to launch, including Starlink's and Jio's, are all awaiting final security clearance.

Late on Friday, Musk taunted ​Ambani directly, addressing him ‌as "Prime Minister Ambani" and asking whether he would "consider allowing Starlink to compete".

Reliance ​has not responded to requests for comment on Musk's remarks.

(Reporting by Munsif ​Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed)