Starlink Says India Prices Were 'Dummy Data' After Website Glitch
Starlink’s India website had revealed its price plan briefly on Monday, showing a residential plan retailing at Rs 8,600 and an additional Rs 34,000 for the hardware kit required to access services.
Starlink has not launched in India yet, and the pricing that briefly appeared online was only dummy test data, Lauren Dreyer, VP of Starlink Business Operations, clarified on X.
She said the Starlink India website is not live, no service pricing has been announced, and the company is not taking orders from customers in India. A configuration glitch, she explained, briefly made placeholder data visible: figures that “do not reflect what the cost of Starlink service will be in India.” The glitch was quickly fixed.
The clarification came after Starlink’s India website briefly revealed its monthly price plan on Monday, showing a residential plan retailing at Rs 8,600 and an additional Rs 34,000 for the hardware kit required to access its satellite-enabled internet services.
The hardware kit includes a dish to send and receive data, a router that converts the signal into a Wi-Fi network, and other items like a mount and power cables. The service promises unlimited data, a 30-day trial, 99.9% uptime and strong connectivity even during weather fluctuations.
A closer look at the website also suggested possible city-wise price listings, with different plans based on location, though Starlink is yet to launch in India and detailed pricing remains unavailable. The site even showcased a business plan, but specifics are still forthcoming.
Starlink is the satellite internet venture of SpaceX, the private space technology company founded by billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk had remarked on Nithin Kamath's WTF podcast that Starlink aims to serve areas in the countryside within India, where fibre optic cables and telecom towers do not have as much prevalence, as compared to urban areas.
He said that the service would work best in areas which are sparsely populated, with no current plans to enable operations in denser regions, stating that "physics would not allow for that." Musk described Starlink as "thousands of satellites providing low latency high speed internet around the world".
