I understand this take, but it is not a consumer responsibility to consider the possible long-term ramifications of competition.
If a consumer can get a lower price today through competition, it is their right.
Sure, SpaceX is valued 10x Jio and Airtel combined, but that includes everything from building rockets to training AI models.
Just Starlink operations are unlikely to contribute even 10% to SpaceX’s valuation (SpaceX estimated Starlink to be less than 6% of their future TAM).
Starlink also operates in over 160 countries and would not be able to allocate all of their theoretical resources to a single market.
See so many brain dead takes on Starlink saying there should be more competition to Airtel & Jio
Let me give you a quick Capitalism 101 class, on what would happen
1/ Combined Jio + Airtel market cap is ~ 24 L cr - say $240 b
2/ SpaceX market cap is $2.3 T ( 10X combined MCap of Jio and Airtel)
3/ Moment Starlink is launched in India, Market cap would correct by 10-20% ( like what happened in US), say $24B
4/ Musk can infinitely undercut Jio and Airtel forever, they have $2.4T of Mcap to burn
5/ Non Zero proababilty of Airtel &/Jio going bankrupt
6/ Worst Part is ZERO upside for India- majority of zip codes from Kashmir to Kanyakumari have been covered & (apart from some made up use cases of some guy stuck in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh for whom Star link is required)
7/ Worse case after Bankrupting Airtel and Jio, Musk can incease the price by 10X with no competition and we will be sitting ducks
8/ We have already lost the AI, Big Tech war, telecom is a basic necessity/ utility and we can't afford to lose this for ZERO gain to India
9/ If we want FDI, do what Jio did, get META, MSFT as investors, don't get an operator
You are welcome!