Reliance said in a letter that Indian telecom authorities should evaluate Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's Kuiper (AMZN, Financials) satellite broadband capacity before issuing contracts.
Reliance's letter expresses worries about India's satellite internet service contracting process, underlining Ambani and Musk's competitiveness. Musk supports administrative allocation, which is worldwide standard, while Reliance supports spectrum auctions.
Spectrum auctions feature greater upfront costs, which may deter international rivals and favor Reliance, experts say.
After spending $23 billion on spectrum auctions, Reliance handles 15 billion gigabytes of data every month in India, according to the letter. In comparison, Starlink's satellite technology may supply approximately 18 billion gigabytes of data at a reduced cost.
A senior telecom regulator official told Reuters that stakeholders' feedback would be considered before final recommendations are made, presumably before year-end.
The telecom minister of India revealed this week that Starlink is seeking security permission to launch satellite internet services. The minister said a permit would be provided if regulatory prerequisites are met.
Amazon.com shares were trading at $202.98 during Friday's session, down 4%.
