Elon Musk's Starlink Just Revealed Prices For India, & Its Double The Rates In Bhutan
Starlink is now one step away from entering India, promising high-speed satellite internet built for remote and underserved areas.
Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has officially revealed the monthly price of its residential plan for India. After months of regulatory work and preparations, the company is now closer to entering the Indian communications market. Starlink says its goal is to bring fast and reliable internet to remote and underserved areas.
With this pricing announcement, the company is now one step nearer to offering high-speed connectivity to Indian homes that still struggle to get stable broadband. However, when we compare India's closest neighbour that already has Starlink services in place, the price is a bit shocking.
Starlink India Price & Plans
According to the updated Starlink India website, the Residential package will cost Rs 8,600 every month. Along with the subscription, users also need to buy a hardware kit for a one-time price of Rs 34,000.
The plan includes unlimited data and also gives a 30-day trial so new users can test the service before deciding to continue.
Back in March, we reported what the price for Starlink plans is like in Bhutan, the closest country to India that already has the service operational. There, users are offered two subscription plans: Starlink Residential and Starlink Residential Lite.
While the Residential plan is meant for standard home users, the Residential Lite plan is designed for smaller households with lighter internet usage, offering unlimited deprioritised data, meaning speeds may be reduced during peak hours.
Starlink Pricing In Bhutan (excluding hardware, service only):
- Starlink Residential: BTN 4,200 per month (roughly Rs 4,211)
- Starlink Residential Lite: BTN 3,000 per month (roughly Rs 3,007)
So, as we can see, strictly comparing with Bhutan prices, Starlink's India pricing is almost double that provided to our neighbouring nation.
We also tried checking if Starlink services were currently available across cities in India. However, no matter what location we enter, be it New Delhi or Mumbai, the website prompts that the services are yet to be available, which is understandable as Starlink has not officially been launched in India.
What Does Starlink Offer?
Starlink says its system works in all weather conditions and is built to offer more than 99.9% uptime. The company also highlights easy setup because customers simply need to plug in the equipment to start using the internet. These features aim to attract households in regions where regular broadband has been slow, unavailable or inconsistent for years.
At the moment, Starlink has only shared the pricing for the Residential plan. The Business tier has not been announced yet. More details are expected soon, as the company continues final rollout discussions with authorities and prepares its commercial plans.
Starlink India Launch Update & Expansion
Starlink’s big push in India can also be seen through its recent hiring. In late October, SpaceX posted four openings on LinkedIn for its Bengaluru office.
The roles included Payments Manager, Accounting Manager, Senior Treasury Analyst and Tax Manager. The job listings said that this hiring is part of Starlink’s plan to grow across international markets.
Earlier this month, Musk said Starlink is making strong progress globally and is confident about bringing the service to India. He shared these thoughts in a conversation with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath on the People by WTF Podcast.
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Musk mentioned that Starlink's entering India would be an important step in providing dependable internet access to places that still lack reliable broadband, especially in rural and remote communities.
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