By Victor Dasgupta
New Delhi: In a major development Starlink the satellite internet provider owned by billionaire Elon Musk is now available in Sri Lanka. Elon Musk SpaceX’s founder and CEO announced the service’s availability in the country on his social media platform X formerly Twitter. It is important to note that Sri Lanka is the third market to allow the service in South Asia after Bhutan and Bangladesh. In Asia Starlink is already available in countries such as Mongolia Japan the Philippines Malaysia Indonesia Jordan Yemen and Azerbaijan.
Starlink operates the world’s largest constellation of satellites with over 6750 satellites currently in orbit. It provides high-speed low-latency internet to millions of users across the globe as per the company website. Starlink is awaiting regulatory approvals in all of India’s neighbouring countries except China: the firm has published a map showing it is awaiting clearances in Myanmar Nepal and Pakistan.
What is Starlinks current exchange rate?
At current exchange rates Starlink is priced at Rs 3430–4280 (12000–15000 LKR) per month for residential connections and Rs 4280–8560 (15000–30100 LKR) for portable roam plans. The one time hardware equipment is priced at Rs 17185–33685 (60200–118000 LKR). The prices are roughly comparable to those announced for the other two South Asian countries.
Starlink in India:
Notably SpaceXs Starlink has cleared most of the regulatory and licensing requirements in India. With this development Starlink has moved a step closer to launching its satellite internet services in the country. Elon Musks satellite communications company received its licence from the Department of Telecommunications last month nearly three years after submitting its initial application.
Starlink in Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka had 21.5 million mobile broadband connections (the country classifies 3G and 4G connections under broadband) and 2.6 million fixed line broadband connections as of March 2025 according to the latest monthly report by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka.