Starlink Vs Jio Vs Airtel: How Musk's Satellite Internet Fares Compares To India's Internet Giants

The Starlink satellite-based internet service, launched by multi-billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, recently unveiled its monthly residential price plan for customers in India on Monday via its website.

Starlink aims to serve areas in the countryside within India, where fibre-optic cables and telecom towers do not have as much presence in comparison to urban areas.

NDTV Profit examines how this newcomer stacks up against India's telecom giants Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Tata Play in the internet space.

Reliance Jio offers the least expensive internet plan at Rs 399 a month, with Bharti Airtel trailing at Rs 499 per month followed by Tata Play whose cheapest monthly plan is priced at Rs 850

Starlink proves to be a substantially pricier option at Rs 8,600 a month, along with a hefty one-time hardware cost of Rs 34,000.

Meanwhile, Tata Play offers the cheapest premium internet plan at Rs 3,900 per month, followed closely by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, which both price their premium plans at Rs 3,999 a month.

While Starlink's residential plans may supply anywhere between 25 MBPS to 220 MBPS, Tata Play's provides the most value for money in internet speed with its cheapest internet plan providing 100 MBPS.

Bharti Airtel provides up to 40 MBPS for its most inexpensive internet plan and Reliance Jio's internet speed is 30 MBPS for its least pricey payment plan.

All three firms provide a maximum internet speed of 1,024 MBPS for their premium pricing plans.

Starlink offers a 30-day trial period to new users, whereas Bharti Airtel offers a subscription to the Perplexity Pro AI search engine and Google One's cloud storage services.

It also bundles together subscription offers for OTT platforms such as Jio Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime and others for its premium plan, which is what Reliance Jio also offers.

Tata Play offers the same subscription services from its least expensive monthly price.