Musk confirms Starlink awaiting regulatory approval for SA launch

Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceX’s Starlink is awaiting regulatory approval to launch in South Africa. Responding to a South African farmer’s plea for faster Internet, Musk revealed the service is still in the approval process, despite previous delays. The rollout date remains uncertain, but Musk’s comment marks the first update since 2022. Meanwhile, local regulators have not yet confirmed any application from Starlink, leaving the service’s future in South Africa in limbo.

Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here

By Hanno Labuschagne

Elon Musk says that his private rocket company SpaceX’s satellite Internet service Starlink is awaiting regulatory approval in South Africa.

Musk made the statement in response to a post on Twitter/X by a South African user who complained about the slow Internet service he uses on his farm.

“Try to online school two kids with a 6Mbps line. It is the only Wi-Fi option in the area, at R900 per month,” he said. “We really can do with Starlink in SA. Please.”

The post was accompanied by a photo of a fixed wireless-access antenna mounted on a wind pump, which presumably provides the person’s farm with its current Internet access.

In response, Musk said Starlink was “waiting for regulatory approval”.

While the post was short on details, it at least confirms that the cutting-edge low-earth orbit service still intends to launch in South Africa.

This is the first time anyone at Starlink or its parent SpaceX has provided even the slightest update on the status of the service’s rollout in South Africa since its estimated date for a local launch was changed to “unknown” in 2022.

When it started accepting pre-orders globally, Starlink’s coverage map originally showed it had an estimated launch date of 2022 in South Africa.

Around November 2021, the planned launch was pushed back to 2023. In September 2022, it was changed to “unknown”, where it has remained until today.

The farmer’s post came shortly after Starlink launched in Zimbabwe, the 14th African country and fourth South African neighbour to officially get the service.

On Sunday, well-known venture capitalist Michael Jordaan also appealed to Musk to bring Starlink and his electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla, to South Africa.

Jordaan called on other users to retweet his post to get Musk’s attention.

Starlink typically has an estimated launch date for a country preceding an imminent rollout. However, even after Musk’s post, the estimated service date in South Africa remained “unknown”.

The service still allows interested customers to reserve their pre-order with a $9 (R161) deposit.

*As of 8 September 2024, the official Starlink coverage map still showed the launch date for the service*

Awaiting confirmation from South African authorities

Starlink will require at least an electronic communications services licence to operate in South Africa or sell its service through a third party that already has the licence.

The company prefers to deal directly with customers, so the latter might not be on the table.

It is important to note that the country’s telecommunications regulator — the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) — has yet to confirm that Starlink has applied for approval to offer its service in the country.

Icasa chair Mothibi Ramusi recently told IT Web that the regulator had still not received an application for a licence to operate in South Africa.

Icasa has said the local use of Starlink’s roaming services, which are fully functional in South Africa, as “illegal”.

Read more: Elon Musk’s Starlink starts cutting off South African users

MyBroadband sent the regulator a request for feedback on Musk’s post but did not immediately receive a response to our query.

In a recent interview with MyBroadband, South Africa’s newly-appointed communications minister, Solly Malatsi, said that the country must show Starlink it is welcome to operate locally within the bounds of the country’s laws.

Malatsi said Starlink had not yet contacted his office, and he found no record that the department had tried to contact Starlink either.

He said his office would be willing to engage and listen to any party that could add value to South Africa’s economy, including Starlink, which could help bridge the country’s digital divide.

Malatsi said that “in the next few weeks” his department would at least have an indication of how it could proceed with the Starlink issue.

“Ultimately, you can only bring someone here who wants to come. But someone can only want to come if they will also be welcomed,” Malatsi said.

“So you’ve got to strike that balance, but I think we will be very proactive in saying, ‘Where are the opportunities in the market that can help for digital inclusion?’ That is one of my priorities, and that is my interest.”

Despite being deemed illegal, many South African households and businesses in rural areas have used Starlink’s roaming service, as its speeds and latency are unrivalled in more remote areas with little or no other means of connectivity.

Among them are farmers, healthcare service providers, safari lodges, rural schools, and mining companies, which regard the service as a “game-changer”.