On Tuesday, Airtel announced that it had reached an agreement with SpaceX to distribute Starlink’s high-speed internet service to customers in India.

By Wednesday morning, the business papers were in a predictable frenzy. The development was described as a masterstroke orchestrated by Airtel to get the upper hand over Jio, its competitor.

A few hours later, Reliance Jio came out with an announcement of its own. Jio was also partnering with SpaceX for the same purpose.

One of the oddities of India’s duopolistic telecom market is that when one company does something, it’s declared as a masterstroke, but when both companies do the same thing… well, nobody is sure what to make of it anymore. 

So, what do we make of it? What does this mean for Starlink, Airtel, and Jio?

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You can also read this edition here: https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/starlinks-toe-hold-in-india/

Earlier edition referenced: 'Elon’s Monsoon Hungama moment' - https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/elons-monsoon-hungama-moment/

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This is the audio edition of The Ken’s popular weekend newsletter, The Nutgraf. Every Saturday, author and host Praveen Gopal Krishnan reads aloud his latest edition, where he synthesizes and tells a story about the most interesting thing that happened that week in India’s business, tech and startup scene.