Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms owned by Reliance Industries, has unveiled plans to operate a constellation of “around 1,600” satellites, supported by 23 ground stations across India.

The firm said the constellation will deliver “sovereign satellite connectivity.”

Speaking to press at India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026, Jio Platforms managing director and Reliance Jio chairman Akash Ambani said: “Today, what we've showcased at IMC is our own satellite stack - a whole data, end-to-end stack which enables 5G product use and also additional services that we'll be able to launch because of that. We will keep on driving to become an end-to-end technology player and creator and enable that so we can scale really, really beneficially.”

Jio commissioned a display at IMC stating its aim to keep the “entire value chain within India [from] design, engineering, integration and testing to launch, deployment, and operations,” Which would serve “more than 600,000 villages.”

Today, the proposed plan is purely notional, but the announcement coincides with Jio Platforms' imminent initial public offering (IPO).

The 23 ground stations represent a modest global portfolio for a single company, and a verticalization bid for a single region. The strategy is similar to Starlink and Amazon Leo’s attempts to absorb ground station capacity, cutting out existing players.

Sovereign, not Starlink?

The plan was revealed in the same week that SpaceX founder Elon Musk launched a tirade against a perceived hostility within India’s regulatory regime against the Starlink constellation.

In March 2025, Starlink signed agreements with Jio Platforms and Bharti Airtel to cross-sell its services, and received a license to launch later in July, though in June this year, Bloomberg reported India had “effectively frozen approvals.”

Last week, Musk accused “certain oligarchs” of blocking Starlink expansion in India in order to maintain a “monopolistic chokehold” over the market. The next day he asked: “Is Ambani the real boss of India?”

The Indian Government rejected the allegation, with its Ministry of Communications insisting its regulatory framework for satellite services was “fair and non-discriminatory,” stating that Starlink and Eutelsat-OneWeb, which has a closer relationship with Bharti, are at the same stage of their regulatory processes.

Lauren Dreyer, vice president of Starlink business operations at SpaceX, attended IMC 2026, and championed Starlink’s establishment of 20 gateway sites with hundreds of antennas in India in compliance with the nation’s security specifications.

Tweeting in June, Dreyer emphasized SpaceX had “heard nothing but encouraging feedback on Starlink’s capabilities and its potential to advance India’s connectivity ambitions.” Replies to Dreyer’s tweet were overwhelmingly negative.