Starlink to begin services in India by focusing on 10 rural Lok Sabha constituencies

Starlink will be live in India soon and will focus on ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies. The satellite-based internet service provider is considering India among its potential markets and might increase the scale of operations in the country soon. The SpaceX-owned company Starlink is aiming to provide high-speed internet in remote areas of the country through a group of satellites. Keep reading to know more about the announcement. 

The Starlink Country Director India at SpaceX, Sanjay Bhargava says in the LinkedIn post that "we will probably focus on ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies for 80% of the Starlink terminals shipped to India." He also mentions that the number of preorders from constituencies will help Starlink India to determine the focus constituencies. In the comments section of his post, the Starlink India Director has also asked people to ask their constituencies' representatives to contact him for a short conversation. He has also shown interest in discussing the benefits of 100% broadband connections with ministers, legislators and bureaucrats. 

Starlink was launched back in 2018 and the company currently has over 1,600 satellites that can provide high-speed satellite broadband services. The SpaceX-owned company is also testing its services in regions including the US, UK, Portugal, Chile, Canada and Australia. Another LinkedIn post by Sanjay Bhargava also reveals that Starlinks target in India "is to have 200,000 terminals active" by December 2022, out of which over 5,000 terminals have been pre-ordered. 

These Starlink terminals are designed to communicate with a satellite in the low orbit around the Earth. The design works in such a way that the receiver on the ground does not need to have a fixed wireline connection. It is how the company plans to provide broadband-level stable internet connection in rural areas in India, where wired broadband service providers might not be able to reach. For being the first in the country to experience the satellite-based broadband internet service, customers in India have to pay $99, which roughly translates to Rs. 7,400. The internet connection is said to have a latency between 20 to 40 milliseconds and speeds might range between 50-Mbps to 150Mbps. 

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