Elon Musk has expressed admiration for Starlink India Director Sanjay Bhargava, to who he attributed the success of PayPal.
Elon Musk has praised Starlink India Director Sanjay Bhargava for leaving no stone unturned in a bid to bring high-speed Internet into rural areas. The 50-year-old SpaceX chief executive said he has “much respect” for Bhargava.
Moreover, Musk said Bhargava deserves credit for the success of PayPal and for helping SpaceX reach India’s rural communities. Bhargava took charge of SpaceX’s satellite broadband operation in India, last month.
Aside from that, Bhargava has worked with Musk on the electronic payment firm. For those who are unaware, SpaceX’s Starlink operates a group of satellites in low Earth orbit that transmit the internet to the ground.
According to a report from Gadgets360. Starlink is gearing up to launch its services in India.
Elon Musk Praises Sanjay Bhargava
Musk praised Bhargava while responding to a report on how his Aerospace company plans to offer Starlink Internet to rural India. “Sanjay deserves a lot of credit for making X/PayPal succeed,” Musk tweeted.
Sanjay deserves a lot of credit for making X/PayPal succeed. Now helping SpaceX serve rural communities in India. Much respect.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2021
“Now helping SpaceX serve rural communities in India. Much respect,” he added. Bhargava and his wife Anita Kapur Bhargava has posted a video presentation of SpaceX’s plan to make Starlink broadband service available in rural India in 2022.
Starlink is currently in the process of gaining regulatory approvals. Furthermore, SpaceX will be doling out 100 Starlink hardware kits for free.
Twenty of these will be given to Delhi schools and 80 will be given in a rural district close to India’s capital territory.
Aside from that, the company’s representatives will team up with the NITI Aayog to determine 12 rural districts – three from each region including North, South, East & West. It will be offering Internet services there.
SpaceX Plans To Operate 200K Starlink Devices
Also, the company aims at operating at least 200,000 Starlink devices by tthe end of next year. Moreover, 80 percent (160,000) of those will operate in rural areas. In the meantime, Anita Bhargava is assisting Starlink pro-bono.
Presentation from #StarlinkIndia???.
Catalyzing Rural Development by Anita Bhargava, wife of Starlink India Country Director Sanjay Bhargava. She is going to volunteer pro bono to help Starlink.
Starlink is working with Niti Ayog to identify 12 Districts for initial deployment pic.twitter.com/oYlpy6Lcof
— Tesla Club India® (@TeslaClubIN) October 31, 2021
Starlink is currently in the beta testing phase in the regions it is available at the moment. Moreover, it is likely to offer latency between 20–40 milliseconds, and the speeds vary from 50Mbps to 150Mbps.
Moreover, a considerable majority of rural India doesn’t have Internet access. So, India could turn out to be a major broadband market for SpaceX.
