Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Wednesday said his satcom venture Eutelsat OneWeb is significantly ahead of Elon Musk's Starlink in the satcom queue in India, with the licence applied for five years ago, and added that he would be happy to receive the go-ahead at least a few days before the US tech billionaire.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026, Mittal said: "I think I am significantly ahead in the queue from him. I applied five years back." Mittal was responding to a question on Musk's recent potshots at India's telecom billionaires amid the debate over satellite internet services in the country.
Mittal said his ground network had been ready for the past three years and that the satellites had been hovering over India for five years, and noted the company is yet to receive permission to begin services. "We don't have the permission, so we'll be very happy to get it at least a few days before him," Mittal said.
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Musk recently alleged on X that Starlink was being blocked by certain oligarchs keen to keep a "monopolistic chokehold" on Indians. The Ministry of Communications hit back the next day, calling any suggestion that the framework or its application was unfair or discriminatory "baseless and misconceived". Musk then asked on X whether Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani was "the real boss of India."
Last week, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said India doesn't allow monopoly in any sector.
"Let me set the record straight. For us, the Department of Telecommunications, we are technology agnostic... Our job is to be able to provide the bouquet of services to every single customer. It is for the customer to choose in a free market which service he or she prefers, and within that service bouquet, which company's service he or she prefers," the minister had said during a briefing at the recent India Mobile Congress.
Scindia said that three entities -- Musk's Starlink, Reliance Jio's satellite venture Jio Satcom and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb - have already secured licences, while Amazon's Project Kuiper has expressed interest and will need to undergo the established procedure.
Scindia pointed out that although there was a lot of conversation about one particular company, the fact is that three have got satcom licences.
"We are very clear on our stand. Three parties have got a licence; as and when the government decides the charge system on the revenue basis, that spectrum will be assigned to them, and as and when they individually fulfil the security conditions, they can start operations," the minister had said.
TRAI and the telecom department are close to a final decision on pricing regime for satcom spectrum, he informed.
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