‘Starlink would help the least served in India, especially in rural areas’: Elon Musk
Musk’s comments come as Starlink renews its push for regulatory approval in India, with its Gen 2 network featuring direct-to-device connectivity.
Musk made the comments on August 21 while responding to a post by X account DogeDesigner that highlighted gaps in India’s mobile and internet coverage. The post pointed to difficult terrain, limited commercial viability and infrastructure constraints as some of the reasons for connectivity gaps.
The post said 11,256 villages in India did not have 4G coverage as of May 2026. It also cited March 2026 data showing that India had 1.093 billion internet subscriptions, of which 440.87 million were in rural areas. Rural internet subscription density stood at 48.31 per 100 people, compared with 126.80 per 100 in urban India.
“Starlink would help the least served in India, especially in rural areas,” Musk wrote.
The satellite internet service could potentially extend connectivity to places where conventional telecom infrastructure faces geographical or infrastructure-related limitations.
Starlink has been seeking regulatory approvals to begin satellite communication services in India. The company has recently resubmitted an application to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre for its Gen 2 satellite constellation, which includes direct-to-device technology.
The renewed application follows an earlier setback, when IN-SPACe rejected Starlink’s request for its proposed satellite constellation after finding that certain features and spectrum bands did not conform to Indian requirements.
Starlink, operated by SpaceX, had initially applied for approval for both Gen 1 and Gen 2 constellations. The company’s latest push comes as India works on the regulatory framework governing satellite spectrum allocation and satellite communication services.