TAMPA, Fla. — Jio Platforms, which owns India’s largest telco, is looking to lease broadband capacity from global satellite constellations to jumpstart its own sovereign low Earth orbit (LEO) network in the country.
“Jio connected India on the ground — now, we must connect India from the skies,” Akash Ambani, the company’s managing director, said June 19.
“There are still the remotest of villages, island communities, and border outposts where Jio network cannot reach. For them, satellite connectivity will be the bridge to the rest of India.”
Ambani said “partnering with leading global constellation providers by leasing satellite capacity” would help accelerate the availability of services ahead of building a longer-term sovereign capability.
“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,” he added.
The same day, Jio submitted draft papers to India’s capital markets regulator for an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
India has been moving to open its market to foreign space players and investors in recent years, encouraging LEO operators pushing for access to the world’s most populous nation.
However, India’s government tightened security and data compliance rules for satellite connectivity last year, including new obligations for national security, sovereignty and promotion of local industry participation.
SpaceX won a key approval from India’s space regulator in July 2025 to provide Starlink LEO services, but has yet to launch commercially in the country nearly a year later.
Jio’s local rival Bharti Enterprises owns a part of France-based Eutelsat, which operates OneWeb, currently the only other operational LEO broadband network as Amazon prepares to enter the market this year.
Ambani said Jio will also build its own ground infrastructure in India to anchor its LEO ambitions.
“These ground stations will support our partner constellations,” he continued, “as well our own future satellites, creating an end-to-end satellite broadband ecosystem from space to ground.”
Citing unnamed sources, India’s Economic Times reported June 18 that Jio is planning a constellation of around 1,600 to 1,650 satellites at about 650 kilometers above Earth.
The constellation could reportedly cost between $10 billion and $15 billion and include a direct-to-device capability.
However, while the Economic Times report said India is likely to support Jio in securing spectrum for the constellation, it added that the government is unlikely to allow the kind of inter-satellite laser links Starlink uses to reduce reliance on ground stations, because it would enable data to bypass national borders.
