NEW DLEHI: Domestic telecom industry leaders Akash Ambani of Jio and Sunil Mittal of Airtel made use of a platform where PM Narendra Modi was present to complain about easier market access for multinational corporations.
While Ambani sought local storage of data of Indians and voiced concern over its movement abroad, Mittal suggested that foreign satellite communications players — where Elon Musk’s Starlink is a prominent player — should also buy spectrum like domestic companies who get it through auctions.
As a result, the India Mobile Congress ended up beco ming a battleground of sorts where Jio and Airtel seemed to be on the one side and Musk, the world’s richest man, on the other. The homegrown players fear auction-free route will provide an easy entry to Star link, and possibly Musk’s fellow American Jeff Bezos’s satcom venture Project Kuiper, the lucrative Indian market, and drive in a fresh wave of competition.
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