New Delhi: The Meghalaya government signed a memorandum of understanding with Starlink India on Wednesday, becoming the third Indian state to formally partner with Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture as the company’s push to establish itself in the country accelerates.Chief Minister Conrad Sangma announced the signing, which took place in New Delhi, and said the agreement was aimed at extending connectivity to schools, health centres and rural communities in parts of the state that ground-based telecom infrastructure has not reached.Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, and Lauren Dreyer, Vice President of Starlink Operations, were present at the signing in New Delhi.“Connecting our remotest schools, health centres and communities remains a challenge,” Sangma wrote on X. “Our partnership to introduce advanced satellite connectivity technology marks an important step toward bridging this gap.”The chief minister said the collaboration would help improve healthcare access, expand learning opportunities for students and benefit farmers and rural communities. He also said Meghalaya was committed to developing Shillong as a technology hub for the northeast.In November 2025, Maharashtra became the first Indian state to sign a letter of intent with Starlink. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said at the time that the agreement would help connect government institutions, rural communities and critical public infrastructure across remote and underserved regions of the state.Gujarat signed a similar agreement in February 2026, with its deal covering connectivity for common service centres, government schools, disaster management control rooms, ports and wildlife sanctuary regions.The state-level agreements are part of a broader expansion by Starlink across India.In March 2025, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel signed separate distribution agreements with SpaceX, a move that caught analysts by surprise given that both companies had until recently been Starlink’s most prominent opponents. Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel had jointly lobbied for satellite spectrum to be auctioned competitively rather than allocated administratively, a position that put them directly at odds with Musk.In October 2024, the Indian government sided with Musk, announcing that spectrum would be allocated administratively. Analysts had stated the policy outcome, combined with the political context surrounding Musk’s influence in Washington, left Jio and Airtel with little choice but to change course.The deals with Jio and Airtel also followed Musk’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington in February 2025, during which the two discussed cooperation in space technology.