IPO-bound Jio Platforms weighs satellite network to rival Starlink

As it prepares for a public listing, Jio Platforms Ltd, the digital arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, is betting on satellite communications and artificial intelligence to drive its next phase of growth.

The company, which owns telecom operator Reliance Jio, plans to build a sovereign low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for India while aiming to migrate its entire subscriber base to 5G by 2030, managing director Akash Ambani said Friday.

In the near term, Jio will partner with global satellite operators and lease capacity to accelerate the rollout of satellite broadband services while building its own long-term satellite capabilities.

“This dual approach will enable Jio to meet India’s connectivity needs faster, while laying the foundation for the Indian satellite broadband platform of global scale,” Ambani said at the 49th annual general meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd.

Jio's satellite push comes as satellite internet providers expand their presence in India. Elon Musk-owned Starlink and Eutelsat OneWeb have both secured licences to offer satellite internet services in India and are expanding their satellite fleets. Jio Satellite Communications Ltd (JSCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms, has also received a licence to launch satellite internet services and is awaiting spectrum clearance.

Satellite connectivity will allow Jio to extend services to remote villages, island communities and border regions that remain beyond the reach of terrestrial networks, Ambani said.

“An Indian player coming up with a satellite network of its own is a welcome development. Having sovereign capability in a satellite constellation will be beneficial for our strategic autonomy,” said A.K. Bhatt, director general of Indian Space Association (ISpA).

According to Bhatt, a challenge could come from congested orbital slots, which may require government support in engagements with global bodies to ensure that late entrants also have a fair opportunity to deploy satellite networks.

LEO satellites orbit closer to Earth than traditional satellites, enabling lower-latency, high-speed internet services such as broadband and video calls. However, they require large constellations to provide uninterrupted coverage.

Jio's satellite ambitions build on efforts already underway. In 2022, the company formed a joint venture with Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES to provide broadband services across India using a combination of geostationary (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite networks. The venture was designed to deliver multi-gigabit connectivity to enterprises, mobile backhaul providers and retail customers.

"Jio is also building its own ground station infrastructure in India. These ground stations will support our partner constellations, as well as our own future satellites, creating an end-to-end satellite broadband ecosystem from space to ground,” Ambani said.

He said the initiative will strengthen India’s atma nirbharta in space and place the country firmly on the global satellite broadband services map.

The next growth phase

Alongside its satellite plans, Jio outlined five priorities for its next phase of growth: migrating subscribers to 5G by 2030, expanding home broadband adoption through AirFiber, offering cloud computing services to businesses, embedding AI into consumer technologies, and exporting its 5G stack, including fixed wireless access and AI services, to international markets.

“As we launch more value-added services, such as premium 5G, AI-bundled services, and enterprise solutions, our ARPU will grow significantly,” Ambani said, adding that the company’s dedicated network slicing will enable a new tier of high-performance connectivity for consumers and enterprises.

Jio's subscriber base has crossed 524 million, Ambani said. Of those, more than 268 million use 5G services, making it the largest 5G subscriber base for any single-country operator outside China. He also said more than 90% of JioAirFiber installations are completed within 24 hours and home broadband connections are increasing by as many as 60,000 a day.

The satellite initiative also aligns with Reliance's broader push into artificial intelligence through Reliance Intelligence, which is focused on building sovereign AI infrastructure in India.

“This cutting-edge infrastructure will be powered entirely by clean energy from Reliance’s own solar generation from the Kutch renewable platform. The first 120 megawatts will be commissioned by the end of 2026,” Ambani said.

The company is also operationalizing an initial fleet of Nvidia GB300 graphics processing units, or GPUs. Ambani said the computing capacity would be equivalent to more than 75,000 H100 GPUs on an AI-inference basis.

Once the first 120 megawatts of infrastructure is operational, that capacity could scale to more than 200,000 H100-equivalent GPUs, he added.

The announcements came on the same day Jio Platforms filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for a planned public listing. The proposed offering comprises a fresh issue of 270 million equity shares with a face value of ₹10 each and no offer for sale by existing investors.