Another neighbouring country gets Starlink before South Africa

Starlink has announced that its services are officially online in Lesotho, yet another African country and neighbour with access to the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite Internet before South Africa.

Starlink is a satellite broadband service run by Elon Musk’s private space company, SpaceX, supported by a network of over 6,750 low-earth orbit satellites, which SpaceX has been launching in batches since 2019.

The announcement comes after the Lesotho Communications Authority granted the company a 10-year operating licence in April.

This makes the enclave one of 21 African countries to have Starlink operating within their borders.

Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, and Angola are the only countries in Southern Africa where the SpaceX-owned company does not yet operate.

Starlink first launched its operations in Africa at the beginning of 2023, when Nigeria became the first country on the continent to be granted access to the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology.

Since then, the service has become Nigeria’s second-biggest Internet service provider (ISP), according to the BBC.

South Africa was previously one of the first countries on Starlink’s list of planned rollouts, with pre-orders for the service launching locally in February 2021.

However, Starlink has said the country’s ownership requirements for telecommunications network licences are why it has not launched in South Africa.

Under the Electronic Communications Act, holders of communications network operator and service provider licences for national use must be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged individuals.

Communications minister Solly Malatsi recently proposed a policy direction that would introduce Equity Equivalence Investment Programmes (EEIPs) in the ICT sector.

It also proposes to better align the telecommunications sector with national broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBBE) legislations and regulations.

EEIPs are an alternative way for multinational companies to comply with B-BBBE without meeting the 30% ownership threshold.

Most recently, SpaceX committed to spending R500 million to provide free broadband Internet to schools in South Africa, a proposed investment to gain local approval for Starlink.

Starlink said the addition of EEIPs in the ICT sector would allow it to expand broadband access across the country, including underserved townships, farms, communities, and rural schools.

The company said if it gets local approval, it will roll out Starlink Internet to 5,000 schools nationwide, providing free high-speed Internet connectivity to roughly 2.4 million children.