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Image: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/AFP
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has unleashed one of the most ambitious consumer broadband experiments in history, beaming high-speed internet from low-Earth orbit via its Starlink satellite constellation. Globally, the service now counts millions of subscribers across roughly 100 markets.
Yet in Africa, a region where affordable, reliable internet could transform economies, Starlink’s rollout is proving far more turbulent than the hype suggested.
Starlink doubled its footprint in Africa in 2024, adding several countries to its coverage map.
But for every successful launch in places like Ghana, Sierra Leone, Botswana and Zimbabwe, the company has had to push back launch plans for many more, and even withdraw services entirely in some markets.
Overwhelming user demand has outpaced network capacity in many regions. In parts of Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana and elsewhere, users saw new subscriptions paused for months as satellite bandwidth hit constraints. While some cities have since reopened registration, access remains limited in major hubs like Abuja, Lagos, Nairobi and Harare.
Perhaps nowhere is Starlink’s Africa trouble more obvious than here in SA.
Despite early excitement, Starlink still has no formal licence to operate locally, a position that has left its service in legal limbo for years.
South Africans have long exploited a workaround by buying hardware and signing up using foreign roaming plans, but regulators have now cracked down on this grey market
According to MyBroadband, SpaceX has begun suspending services, warning customers they are operating in “unauthorised territory” pending local regulatory approval.
The root cause? SA’s telecommunications licensing rules include requirements for participation by historically disadvantaged groups, a condition SpaceX’s global corporate structure has so far declined to meet.
In late 2025, the Communications Ministry issued a policy directive encouraging the telecom regulator ICASA to update its licensing frameworks, including recognition of Equity Equivalent Investment Programs (EEIPs).
SpaceX says if ICASA adopts these changes, Starlink could be licensed within weeks, promising full compliance with South African Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) requirements.
But implementation is the key: ICASA must still act to amend its regulations.
The regulatory standoff has real consequences for end-users:
Service cut-offs — South Africans on roaming plans have faced abrupt suspensions, according to TechAfrica News.
Illegal resellers shut down — Unauthorised distributors that once promised kits and connectivity have collapsed, leaving many customers without service or migration support.
South Africa is not alone. Uganda’s regulator has compelled Starlink to block all terminals nationwide after finding the service lacked a licence. And in neighbouring Namibia, authorities ordered Starlink to cease operations while a licence review remains pending.
Regulatory uncertainty, spectrum allocation issues, and debates over local economic participation are recurring themes across the continent, and they underscore how different African markets are rewriting the rules for global tech entrants.
Starlink’s setbacks illustrate a larger truth: Africa’s digital divide isn’t simply a problem of technology, but of policy, economics and local control.
For all its potential to bridge connectivity gaps, Starlink is still learning, sometimes the hard way, that scaling next-generation infrastructure across a diverse continent requires far more than satellites in orbit.
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