South Africans find creative way to access Starlink, as other African countries connect officially

• Starlink is now available in four countries in Africa - South Africa is not one of them.
• More than a thousand South Africans are using a back-door method to access the satellite internet services.
• But they are paying a premium to do this.
• For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.

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Following Starlink's launch in Kenya on Tuesday, the SpaceX-owned satellite internet provider's services are now officially available in four countries in Africa, with many more set to come online before the end of the year.

But in South Africa, regulatory obstacles mean there is currently no timeline for when the country will be given official access to Starlink's powerful satellite internet services.

Starlink is a satellite internet provider that is owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

It has a fleet of satellites that are in low earth orbit which provide high-speed internet across the globe.

But to use Starlink's services, a subscription for the services, as well as a Starlink kit, which includes an antenna and wifi router, is needed. 

And since Starlink does not currently have a licence to operate in South Africa from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), it is impossible to take out a subscription and purchase a Starlink kit for someone who uses a South African address.

South Africa is covered by the Starlink network, meaning it would be possible for paying customers with a subscription to connect.

ICASA has not yet responded to questions from News24, but confirmed to TechCentral in April it had met twice with SpaceX and said Starlink had not applied for a licence.

Other African countries have cleared the regulatory hurdles and have enabled Starlink to operate in the country already or have plans to launch in what remains of 2023 or in 2024.

Starlink announced on Tuesday Kenya had joined Nigeria, Rwanda, and Mozambique in providing access to it.

Starlink has an availability map on its website which shows where it has coverage, where its services are live, and provides an indication of when certain countries are expected to start offering its services.

Among the countries sharing a border with South Africa, Mozambique already has Starlink available, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and Eswatini are set to launch Starlink before year's end and Lesotho is in a similar position to South Africa, with no service date listed.

Angola, Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, and Zambia are among the countries that are scheduled to start providing Starlink services before the end of 2023, based on the availability map.

Back-door access

As MyBroadband first reported, it is possible to access Starlink in South Africa using the roaming feature the company launched earlier this year.

Starlink customers who take out a roaming package can take their kit with them and access internet services wherever there is network access.

This allows someone to fix a Starlink to the roof of a vehicle for example and access it in any country or area where there is network coverage.

Using this method, more than a thousand South Africans were already making use of Starlink, News24 reported last week.

READ MORE | Over a thousand South Africans already using Musk's Starlink, even though it lacks regulator's nod

One company in the Eastern Cape, IT Lec, is acting as a third-party service provider which imports the Starlink kit for South Africans and manages subscriptions on behalf of clients.

The company had provided access to Starlink to around 1 700 clients so far and received approximately 10 to 20 requests for kits per day, according to IT Lec director and investor Mauritz Coetzee.

He said the download speed South Africans were getting using Starlink is an average of 50 and 200 Mbps.

Coetzee added the upload speed was more stable at around 15 to 20 Mbps.

Paying a premium

He told News24 IT Lec charged R15 000 for the Starlink kit, which is often imported from the US, which included taxes and courier costs.

The monthly subscription cost is R1 799 after that.

It is possible to see the price other countries are paying for Starlink access by entering an address from that country into the order portal on its website.

In Kenya, around R11 250 (89 000 Kenyan shillings) must be paid for the Starlink hardware, and R997 for the monthly subscription for a regional roaming package.

In Mozambique, R11 378 (40 492 Mozambican meticals) must be paid for the hardware and R1 024 is charged monthly for the regional roaming package.

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