Starlink roaming cutoff survivors

Many Starlink users in South Africa have continued to use the SpaceX-run service after it implemented a 60-day continuous roaming use rule, which has made accessing the service more cumbersome and expensive.

In addition, one specialist importer has seen a surge in sales of Starlink kits in recent weeks, which it attributed to positive political movements regarding the service’s approval in South Africa.

These developments show there is strong demand for low-earth-orbit satellite Internet service in South Africa despite the country’s communications regulator deeming it illegal.

Starlink’s roaming service has allowed people who managed to import a kit from an officially supported country by themselves or via a specialised unofficial importer to use its fast and uncapped Internet for nearly two years.

While it cannot compete with cost-effective broadband solutions available in highly populated areas, like fibre, fixed-5G, and fixed-LTE, Starlink is unmatched in connectivity-deprived rural areas.

Aside from the Starlink kit, users in South Africa only need a power source and a largely-unobstructed view of the sky in a southerly direction.

MyBroadband’s hands-on tests have shown the service can support fibre-like speeds and connection stability that outperforms older satellite Internet.

While Starlink has been a game-changer for South African farmers, game lodges, rural schools, and mobile health clinics, it recently started implementing a roaming use limit that has made it more difficult to access locally.

The limit requires users to travel to the “home” country where their Starlink kit is registered and access the service from there every 60 days.

If a user tries to access Starlink roaming outside their home country for more than 60 continuous days, their access is temporarily suspended.

The rule makes sense considering Starlink has different pricing in each country to make its product attractive based on affordability within each market.

While roaming subscriptions are generally more expensive than regular packages, there are cases where they can be cheaper than the residential options in more affluent countries.

For example, in the US, Starlink charges $120 (R2,118) per month for its residential service.

A roaming package registered in one of several African countries costs around R1,800 per month.

Therefore, a US-based could exploit the price difference with a kit registered in one of these countries to save a few dollars every month if the restriction were not in place.

Despite making it more difficult to access the service continuously, MyBroadband found several posts on Facebook groups from South African Starlink users who have successfully reset their kits.

Many are also providing advice to fellow users on how to do the same with their kits.

Fortunately for these users, Starlink is officially available in four of South Africa’s neighbours — Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

To restore their service, they only have to access the Internet through their Starlink kit in the “home” country for a few minutes before returning to South Africa.

Those who had their subscriptions registered in other African countries — like Malawi, Rwanda, or Zambia — can also transfer their accounts to their closest neighbouring country once they are in that location.

Paid-for physical reset service

One company that offers an unofficial Starlink importing and activation service — IcasaSePush — has been helping its customers stay online after the cutoffs.

Shortly after Starlink started warning roaming users about the 60-day cutoff, it launched a dedicated web page providing step-by-step instructions for do-it-yourself physical resets.

For those who cannot make the trips themselves, IcasaSePush offers a physical reset service starting from R1,100 per month.

Considering the kit needs to be reset every two months, the cost is effectively R2,200 per trip.

Although that price might sound steep when adding the roughly R1,800 monthly Starlink roaming subscription, it is important to consider that this includes the full courier and transport costs.

For many who stay far from the border and choose to take the trip themselves, the fuel, food, and accommodation costs will potentially be similar.

To help justify the price of its reset service, IcasaSePush has created a table providing a reference for self-travelling costs to the nearest supported countries, shown below.

The company told MyBroadband that sales of its reset service had picked up significantly in recent weeks as many customers wanted a convenient way to stay online.

“As more South Africans seek alternatives to long-distance travel to reactivate their kits, our service is steadily becoming a go-to solution,” IcasaSePush said.

“The increasing demand reflects the growing reliance on fast, uninterrupted Internet connectivity, and many users have found that opting for our reset service is a hassle-free, cost-effective choice.

It should be emphasised that Starlink is still deemed illegal in South Africa due to not having the required operating licences.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) previously warned against its use and threatened fines for those found to be selling the kits.

Starlink’s South African launch date has been “unknown” since late 2022, while dozens of African countries have rolled out the service, and dozens more have estimated launch dates in 2024 and 2025.

Starlink’s delay in local approval is believed to be due to the country’s strict ownership rules, which includes that telecoms licensees be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.

However, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, recently said he intends to issue a policy directive to Icasa regarding equity equivalent programmes.

Such programmes are used in other sectors and provide an avenue for international companies to contribute socio-economically if they cannot meet requirements that are uniquely South African.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has also had high-level discussions with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, urging him to invest in his country of birth.

IcasaSePush believes that a recent surge in kit sales was due to the positive political sentiment around Starlink.

“While the official approval is still in the works, many customers aren’t willing to wait,” IcasaSePush said.