Elon Musk on Friday (October 9, 2026) escalated his public spat over Starlink’s entry into India, sarcastically addressing industrialist Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” and accusing him of seeking to protect a monopoly, while asking if he would consider allowing the satellite internet service to compete in the country.
Mr. Musk’s latest salvo on X came just hours after Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia asserted that India does not permit monopolies in any sector, and that despite the buzz around one “particular” company, three players have received satcom licences and can start operations after individually meeting the security requirements and milestones.
The post by Mr. Musk now marks a sharp escalation in the Starlink satcom offering row, which saw the U.S. trillionaire recently alleging that powerful business interests are seeking to block his service to preserve their dominance in the Indian market.
In a post on Thursday (October 8, 2026), Mr. Musk had asked if “Ambani is the real boss of India”.
On Friday (October 9, 2026) evening, Mr. Musk upped the ante with a fresh post.
“Dear Prime Minister Ambani, Please accept my humble apologies for not realising that you are the real boss of India. Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?” he wrote.
Mr. Musk also said that there are many areas of India, as there are in all countries, with no internet access, which denies children the opportunity for education and small businesses the opportunity to sell their goods to a global market.
“Starlink would change their lives for the better,” Mr. Musk said.
Within minutes, Mr. Musk penned another post, saying, “Starlink has proven to be essential for saving lives during natural disasters throughout the world, when all other communication systems have failed,” adding, “So you would also be helping save men, women and children throughout India.”
On Friday (October 9, 2026), Mr. Scindia said India doesn’t allow monopoly in any sector.
“Let me set the record straight. For us, the Department of Telecommunications, we are technology agnostic… Our job is to be able to provide the bouquet of services to every single customer. It is for the customer to choose in a free market which service he or she prefers, and within that service bouquet, which company’s service he or she prefers,” the Union minister said at a briefing at the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi.
Mr. Scindia said that three entities – Mr. Musk’s Starlink, Reliance Jio’s satellite venture Jio Satcom and Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb – have already secured licences, while Amazon’s Kuiper has expressed interest and will need to undergo the established procedure.
While there is a lot of conversation about one particular company, three have got satcom licences, he said.
“We are very clear on our stand. There are three parties that have got a licence; as and when the government decides the charge system on the revenue basis, that spectrum will be assigned to them, and as and when they individually fulfil the security conditions, they can start operations,” the Minister said.
TRAI and the telecom department are close to a final decision on pricing regime for satcom spectrum, Mr. Scindia said.
Hitting out at the Congress in the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi and Mr. Musk’s exchange on X, the minister said, “As far as the Congress is concerned… I don’t think they themselves know whether they’re going left or right.”
He said the Congress initially had a problem with “a certain person getting a licence” and pointed out that “now they have a problem, and they’ve allied with that person in terms of why he’s not getting a licence”.
“So I don’t know whether they have clarity on where they’re going, but that is the case with the Congress, which is to be expected,” Mr. Scindia said.
The war of words came amid a spat over satcom services, with Mr. Musk alleging that Starlink is being blocked by certain oligarchs seeking to “maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people”.
As the India Mobile Congress (IMC) unfolded in the capital, the government and Mr. Musk traded barbs over satellite communications, with the Department of Telecommunications rejecting allegations that domestic business interests were blocking Starlink’s entry, prompting the tech billionaire to sarcastically ask whether “Ambani is the real boss of India”.
“Starlink is licensed in over 165 countries and has spent five years complying with every single law and requirement of the government of India, so why still no license?” Mr. Musk said in an X post earlier.
The Telecom Ministry has maintained that the country’s authorisation framework for telecom and satellite services is “fair and non-discriminatory” and that any suggestion that it was being applied selectively was “baseless and misconceived”.
Published – October 10, 2026 01:30 am IST
