Having just lost a battle with Elon Musk over how India's satellite spectrum is awarded, Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani could face a bigger challenge if Musk's Starlink launches services in India and the two go head-to-head on price.

Elon Musk’s Starlink Inc. has logged a win in the fight for India’s satellite broadband market with a government minister saying the spectrum will be allocated, and not auctioned as sought by homegrown billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio has been vocal about the need to allocate such spectrum through an auction to give a level playing field to legacy operators.

India's government on Tuesday said it will allot spectrum for satellite broadband administratively and not via auction, hours after Elon Musk criticized the auction route being sought by rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani as "unprecedented".

Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, faces a new challenge with Elon Musk's Starlink planning to launch satellite broadband services in India. The Indian government decided to allocate spectrum administratively.

India is set to allocate spectrum for satellite services through administrative means rather than auction, a decision that aligns with recent comments by Elon Musk and rebuffs lobbying efforts by the country's largest telecom operators.

India’s decision to allocate satellite spectrum through administrative means, bypassing the auction method, appears to favor global players like Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia confirmed the administrative allocation process for satellite services,

India has been debating how to allocate spectrum for satellite services, with Mukesh Ambani and Elon Musk on opposite sides. Recently, Musk responded to a meme suggesting Ambani fears Starlink's entry,