Starlink alternatives in South Africa

Although South Africa is the only Southern African country without a Starlink launch date, there are alternatives for households requiring a stable Internet connection where fibre and mobile networks are unavailable.

Most recently, Starlink revealed a time frame for its launch in Lesotho — the last Southern African nation that didn’t have a launch date, excluding South Africa.

This is according to Starlink’s availability map, which says the service will likely launch in Lesotho during the third quarter of 2024.

Starlink has already launched in two of South Africa’s six neighbours: Eswatini and Mozambique. The remaining four neighbours all have expected launch dates.

Namibia is set to receive coverage sometime in 2024, and Zimbabwe and Botswana will be getting theirs at around the same time as Lesotho.

This will leave South Africa as a Starlink-less island in a sea of neighbouring countries with legal access to the service.

The SpaceX-owned service hasn’t revealed the reason behind its reluctance to launch in South Africa. However, regulatory uncertainty is believed to be a barrier to its launch.

Starlink enterprise sales director Phillip van Essen previously said the company prioritised nations that made business and approval easy.

To acquire the necessary licences in South Africa, Starlink must establish a local entity that is at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.

Alternatively, it can partner with a company that complies with South Africa’s local ownership requirements.

At the same time, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has published regulations that would make the requirements stricter, requiring 30% black ownership.

This provision has been suspended, but Icasa could enact it at any time.

Despite being unlawful, that hasn’t stopped thousands of South Africans from importing Starlink kits via countries where the service is supported and using its roaming service to connect.

However, Starlink has warned that it could crack down on this practice in future. It also recently announced price hikes to its roaming service.

While Starlink is an excellent way of acquiring Internet connectivity in remote regions, there are alternatives designed for such circumstances.

These include Wireless Internet Service Providers (Wisps) and other satellite Internet providers.

Wireless Internet Service Providers

Wisps provide fixed wireless access (FWA) connectivity by beaming a Wi-Fi signal from a tower in the area to an antenna installed at the customer’s premises.

However, this requires direct line of sight between the receiving dish and the tower it connects to.

ISPs such as Supersonic, Herotel, and Wirulink offer such FWA services in South Africa. There are also a plethora of smaller local Wisps that service their communities.

Customers can get speeds ranging from 4Mbps to 100Mbps, depending on the provider and infrastructure in the area.

Typically, lower speed packages, or those ranging from 4Mbps to 20Mbps, cost between R399 and R1,149, depending on the provider and your speed choice.

There are cheaper packages, but these are subject to fair usage policies where speeds are throttled once a certain data threshold is reached.

Higher-speed Wisp services — 35Mbps to 100Mbps — can cost anywhere between R550 and R3,099 per month.

Traditional satellite Internet

Satellite Internet services have been on the market in South Africa for some time, offering a reliable connection in isolated areas.

However, users must be prepared to deal with high latency compared to other technologies.

That’s because traditional broadband satellites sit in geostationary orbits high above the Earth.

South African satellite broadband providers typically offer speeds between 5Mbps and 50Mbps, with some charging installation fees, and others providing installation for free.

Two major providers in South Africa are Vox and MorClick.

Vox sells a 5Mbps satellite Internet package with 2Mbps upload for R761 per month with no setup cost.

It also sells 10Mbps, 20Mbps, 30Mbps, and 50Mbps connections for R1,082, R1,493, R2,200, and R3,025, respectively.

MorClick charges R2,500 for installation, and customers can get a 10Mbps or 20Mbps uncapped package for R999 or R1,299 per month, respectively.