Elon Musk’s Starlink has announced the availability of its satellite broadband internet service in Kenya, with the East African nation becoming the latest on the continent to get access to a service that still hasn’t been launched officially in South Africa.
Starlink, owned by Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, announced its immediate availability in Kenya in a tweet earlier on Tuesday.
The latest launch means Starlink is now available in six African countries: Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, Reunion and Mayotte. Many other countries on the continent are marked on Starlink’s coverage map as expected to launch between the third quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.
The latest launch means Starlink is now available in six African countries
South Africa, though, is still not among them: the Starlink website only lists South Africa’s deployment date as “unknown”.
In April, communications regulator Icasa said that it had met with officials from SpaceX on two separate occasions to discuss a possible launch of Starlink in South Africa. But Icasa said there is no record of Starlink applying for any of the licences it needs to operate in the local market.
Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler Barnard had earlier blamed the ANC’s “archaic, irrational and ridiculous hurdles to progress” as the reason behind Starlink’s apparent loss of appetite for a South African launch.
She was referring to the empowerment requirements that form part of the Electronic Communications Act, which requires individual licensees to have a minimum of 30% equity ownership held by persons from previously disadvantaged groups, which include black people, women, youth and people with disabilities.
Communications minister Mondli Gungubele hit back at Kohler Barnard, saying it is “not true that the government is blocking Starlink’s operation in South Africa”.