At the end of April, Starlink, the satellite broadband service owned by South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk,\u00a0disconnected\u00a0its service in Cameroon following a government order. The regulator said Starlink was operating without a license and posed a threat to national security and fair competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move was quickly criticized by local tech watchers as anti-competitive. Douala-based industry veteran Rebecca Enonchong argued that the government was out to protect the state telecom monopoly Camtel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said Camtel has \u201cimpeded\u201d the progress of the industry by purchasing too little capacity from undersea cables and reselling at exorbitant prices to other telcos. \u201cThey want to continue to have full control over the internet and disconnect at will,\u201d Enonchong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starlink, a unit of Musk\u2019s aerospace company SpaceX, has faced numerous regulatory obstacles in Africa. The company has been blocked from approval in seven countries, including C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, South Africa, and Senegal. But some bans have been reversed \u2014 particularly after the company got in touch with top government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With more than half of Africa\u2019s population living in rural regions, there might have been an expectation that satellite broadband would be attractive to governments trying to connect all their citizens. But Musk hasn\u2019t shown much inclination to work directly with African governments, including in his country of birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In South Africa, Starlink still needs to meet a licensing requirement that mandates a 30% ownership of a telecom company from historically disadvantaged groups. This has prompted the communications regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), to\u00a0ban\u00a0Starlink services, pending it satisfying licensing requirements. But the service has\u00a0remained online, despite Starlink warning that it would cut off the \u201cillegal\u201d roaming services by May 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regulators across the continent are worried about Starlink because they want control over the content being shared, industry analysts say. This has been a recurring theme of concern for African governments since the rise of the internet and, in particular, social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starlink\u2019s satellites have no physical infrastructure or official presence in the countries, meaning it isn\u2019t possible to turn off the internet. Similarly, Starlink can\u2019t be held responsible by governments for content transmitted over the signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials are also concerned about the company reaching their citizens without paying taxes or regulatory fees. Indeed this has prompted criticism outside Africa as well. Steve Song, a policy advisor at the Mozilla Foundation and internet access advocate,\u00a0believes\u00a0that Starlink satellites are \u201ceconomically lopsided, extracting value without contributing to local economies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the right incentives, African governments are granting approvals. President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe\u00a0granted\u00a0Starlink a license after it agreed to an exclusive partnership with a telco owned by his\u00a0controversial\u00a0friend Wicknell Chivayo. In Kenya, a 30% local ownership requirement for telcos was\u00a0waived\u00a0after reaching a deal with President William Ruto to boost high-speed internet in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Veteran Zimbabwean journalist Tendai Mbofana\u00a0criticized\u00a0Mnangagwa for approving Starlink\u2019s application without going through the proper channels. Mbofana questioned whether the company would want to operate in Zimbabwe under \u201ca dark cloud of suspicion\u201d over how they secured their license and whether it is legitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starlink uses a network of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide high-speed internet globally. Due to their proximity to Earth, LEO satellites have faster transmission speeds compared to traditional satellites, giving satellite companies like Starlink a competitive edge in the internet service market globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of April 2024, there were 5,800 operational Starlink satellites in orbit which can interconnect and relay signals. According to various performance tests, in some countries, Starlink has\u00a0download speeds\u00a0sometimes exceeding 100 Mbps, a speed that enables activities such as live streaming, online gaming, and video calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Starlink is expensive for the average African. Starlink in Nigeria, for example, costs a monthly subscription fee of 38,000 naira ($27) while its one-off installation kit costs 440,000 naira ($314). This is in comparison to local telco services like Airtel, which offers 1GB of mobile data for 1,000 naira ($0.68).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the one set of consumers who might benefit from satellite services are rural dwellers, who are often the poorest people across Africa and the least likely to be able to afford a premium priced service like Starlink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June, Sierra Leone became the 10th African country to launch the Starlink service, a year after it granted the company a license. Salima Bah, the country\u2019s communications, technology and innovation minister, told Semafor Africa that a key aim of the government was to connect every school in the country especially those in \u201chard to reach places.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said satellite broadband was \u201csignificantly\u201d more cost effective than laying fiber to rural schools. \u201cI think for everyday people who are close to fiber points, maybe they don\u2019t need it as much,\u201d the minister acknowledged. \u201cBut for us it will really be a game changer in places that are hard to connect. It will be really impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from costs, several African watchers question whether satellites are the solution to getting the internet to all Africans. \u201cIt is a shame that we are relying on Starlink to achieve universal coverage when we should be focusing on laying terrestrial infrastructure across the country,\u201d said Gbenga Sesan, executive director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African digital inclusion NGO based in Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a lot of companies landing cable in Lagos, but we have not used up to 20% of their capacity. The real challenge is to pull these cables and get them connected through fiber, not through satellite,\u201d said Sesan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa also doesn\u2019t believe Starlink is the best answer for closing Africa\u2019s digital divide. \u201cA service such as that currently offered by Starlink is not a magic wand to wave away the digital divide,\u201d Charley Lewis, councilor at ICASA, said of Starlink\u2019s place in South Africa. \u201cThe cost of the equipment required, along with the price of a monthly subscription, tends to place such services well out of the reach of poor individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the end of April, Starlink, the satellite broadband service owned by South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk,\u00a0disconnected\u00a0its service in Cameroon following a government order. The regulator said Starlink was operating without a license and posed a threat to national security and fair competition. The move was quickly criticized by local tech watchers as anti-competitive. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,21],"tags":[7,26,22],"class_list":{"0":"post-39301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-technology","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-technology"},"yoast_head":"\n