Starlink coverage map in December 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nStarlink is keen on launching in South Africa, but it does not intend to pursue partnerships for its direct-to-consumer services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, it has lobbied the government to introduce equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) as an alternative way to comply with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EEIPs are already used in many other industries in South Africa, including the technology sector, to enable global conglomerates to offer products and services locally without relinquishing equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company has offered to provide free, uncapped, high-speed Internet to 5,000 rural schools, at an estimated value of R500 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additional telecoms infrastructure rollouts are estimated to put the total value of its investment in South Africa at R2 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starlink also intends to collaborate with local ISPs with respect to the installation and maintenance of school Internet infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company is adamant that these goals will only be achievable if EEIPs are introduced in the ICT sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is currently considering submissions from the public and telecoms stakeholders regarding EEIPs for the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if it ends up introducing the mechanism, industry experts believe the soonest EEIPs could be introduced will be in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is an optimistic timeline that assumes legislative processes are fast and there are no legal challenges to the change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That leaves the door open for latecomers like Amazon Leo and SpaceSail, who may be more willing to launch their services in partnership with local ISPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The status of Starlink’s services in African countries is summarised in the table below. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCountry<\/strong><\/th>Estimated availability date<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>Algeria<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Angola<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Benin<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Botswana<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Burkina Faso<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Burundi<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Cabo Verde<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Cameroon<\/td> 2026<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Central African Republic<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Comoro Islands<\/td> 2026<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Chad<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Democratic Republic of Congo<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Djibouti<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Egypt<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Eritrea<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Ethiopia<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Equatorial Guinea<\/td> 2026<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Gabon<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Gambia<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Ghana<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Guinea<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Guinea-Bissau<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Ivory Coast<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Kenya<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Lesotho<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Liberia<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Libya<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Madagascar<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Malawi<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Mali<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Mauritania<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Mauritius<\/td> 2026<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Mozambique<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Morocco<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Namibia<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Nigeria<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Niger<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Republic of Congo<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Rwanda<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Senegal<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Seychelles<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Sierra Leone<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>South Africa<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>South Sudan<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Somalia<\/td> Available <\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Sudan<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Tanzania<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Togo<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Tunisia<\/td> Was 2025, now 2026<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>Uganda<\/td> 2026<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Western Sahara<\/td> No planned launch date<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Zambia<\/td> Available<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>Zimbabwe<\/td> Available<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX’s Internet service Starlink rolled out to less than half the African countries it planned to add to its markets in 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":520637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[100040,78924,563,11375,48987],"class_list":["post-621481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-equity-equivalent-investment-programmes-eeips","tag-low-earth-orbit-leo-satellites","tag-satellite-internet","tag-spacex","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621481"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":623947,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621481\/revisions\/623947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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