RailTel Shares In Focus On Reports Of Partnership With Elon Musk's Starlink — Details Inside

Shares of RailTel will be in focus on Wednesday's trading session amid reports of the company being in talks with Starlink.

As Elon Musk's Starlink gears up for India launch, RailTel is one of the Indian companies looking to partner with the satellite internet provider, according to a report from LiveMint.

It appears RailTel is looking to offer retail broadband services to its users using Starlink's satellite internet services - a partnership that could prove to be a game-changer for the company.

RailTel, which is a PSU stock, currently operates one of the largest public WiFi services in the world. It offers free WiFi to over 6,000 railway stations in India and has IP surveillance at over 5,000 stations.

What makes RailTel an ideal partner for Starlink is their reach in rural areas, given that Starlink's India push will broadly focus on last-mile connectivity.

RailTel currently has almost 6 lakh subscribers, with 58% of its customers belonging to rural areas of India. The company also has over 11,000 partners doing on‑ground installation and servicing.

While Starlink uses satellites for internet access, the company still requires gateways or teleport sites across India in order to provide stable connectivity.

That is where RailTel comes into the fray, potentially providing dark fibre or managed capacity to Starlink gateway locations. The company can also offer network operations, monitoring and security (SOC) services.

If the partnership does come into effect, RailTel can realistically expand its current coverage beyond railway network areas and offer connectivity to off‑corridor villages, hilly/forested regions, islands and border areas without waiting for fibre rollout.

Shares of RailTel closed at Rs 331 on Tuesday, falling 1.31%. On a year-to-date basis, the shares of the PSU stock have fallen almost 18%.