Tech trillionaire Elon Musk has said Starlink's pricing in India would have to be made affordable, since no one would buy it if it were too expensive, and argued that competition would give consumers more choice.
Musk's comments on X, part of a larger post, come as Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries, counts down to what is expected to be India's biggest public offering.
"The reality is that competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, as it always does. Ambani's profits will be lower, but he is not going out of business," Musk said.
Musk added: "And, obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable." In the same post, Musk renewed his attack on Mukesh Ambani over Starlink's entry into India, accusing the billionaire's supporters of indulging in "absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole" in arguing simultaneously that his satellite internet service cannot compete with "amazing low prices offered by Ambani's de facto monopoly in India", and claiming - in the same breath - that it poses a strong competitive threat.
"On the one hand, they say Starlink couldn't possibly compete with the amazing low prices offered by Ambani's de facto monopoly in India and then, in the same breath, they essentially claim that Starlink would be too strong of a competitor! This is absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole," Musk wrote, claiming that the "ridiculous arguments" by Ambani's online supporters made no sense to him.