Starlink Increasing in Africa

Starlink, the satellite tv for pc broadband supplier operated by SpaceX, is rising its presence in Africa—and we’ve got updates for 2025.

Globally, as of October 2025, Starlink was stay in over 150 nations and territories. In Africa, its providers are actually stay in 23 nations, with extra launches deliberate for the approaching months.

Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency providers are helpful on a continent the place many rural localities have poor or non-existent fastened and/or cellular community connectivity. The Starlink web site additionally highlights its potential to behave as a backup community within the occasion of pure disasters. 

A Historical past of Starlink in Africa

SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in Might 2019.

In accordance with one web site that tracks Starlink launches, as of October 8, 2025, there have been 8,608 satellites in orbit, with greater than 8,592 of these operational.

The agency initially acquired licenses to deploy round 12,000 satellites, whereas it has additionally gained approval for an extra 7,500 Gen2 platforms. It has been reported that Starlink has filed purposes so as to add one other 30,000 satellites.

Starlink reached the a million subscriber milestone in December 2022. A 12 months later, it had round 2.3 million customers, climbing to 4.6 million at end-2024, greater than six million by the center of the 12 months and it hit seven million in August 2025. It doesn’t give a breakdown for its subscriptions in Africa.

Starlink’s First African Launches

After securing worldwide gateway and ISP licenses from the Nigerian Communications Fee in Might 2022, Starlink’s first African launch occurred in Nigeria in February 2023.

The usual service plan prices NGN57,000 ($38.72) a month, with one-off {hardware} prices of NGN318,000 ($216). At launch, the {hardware} retailed at NGN800,000, however the worth was nearly halved to NGN440,000 in April 2024 and has since fallen additional.

The operator had 59,509 subscriptions in Nigeria as of Q1 2025. In main city areas equivalent to Lagos and Abuja the service has reached capability and is labelled on the Starlink web site as ‘bought out’.

African Growth: Stay Markets and Deliberate Launches (as of Oct. 2025)

Supply: TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database

Together with offering providers on to prospects in Nigeria, in July 2023, Starlink signed an settlement with Africa Cellular Networks (AMN).

AMN is a UK-based agency that builds cellular base stations to serve distant communities after which leases capability to cellular operators. It operates greater than 1,500 base stations throughout Nigeria and is utilizing Starlink terminals to offer knowledge connectivity in areas with out entry to a fiber spine.

Starlink’s second African launch got here in March 2023 in Rwanda.

A month earlier than its business switch-on in March, Starlink was issued its working license and launched a pilot service masking 500 faculties. The satellite tv for pc broadband supplier had 4,503 subscriptions on the finish of March 2025, in response to the most recent figures from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority.

These preliminary two African market launches had been adopted by six extra by the course of 2023—in Mozambique, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Benin, and Eswatini.

In September 2023, Namibia-based telco Paratus Group signed a reseller settlement with Starlink, permitting Paratus to supply satellite tv for pc broadband providers to its shoppers throughout Africa. The settlement initially coated Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, and Nigeria, earlier than being rolled out to extra nations.

Having launched in eight African nations by the top of 2023, it doubled its footprint the next 12 months. The primary seven months of 2025 introduced an extra seven launches, in Liberia, Niger, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Chad.

Regulatory Points for Starlink Growth in Africa

With quite a lot of regulatory hurdles in its approach, issues haven’t been completely trouble-free for Starlink in Africa.

In November 2023, the corporate was pressured to push again its deliberate launch in Angola from This autumn 2023 to Q3 2024, attributable to a delay in acquiring the requisite working concessions from the Angolan Institute of Communications (Instituto Angolano das Comunicacoes). Whereas rival low earth orbit supplier Eutelsat gained a 15-year license in Angola in July 2025, Starlink continues to be ready within the wings, with a launch nonetheless to happen as of October 2025.

In January 2024, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) warned nationals that Starlink was not but licensed and the usage of its providers in Zimbabwe was due to this fact unlawful. Some locals had been signing up for a roaming plan in neighboring nations the place the service was stay and importing tools from overseas.

A number of months later, POTRAZ went on to order the U.S. agency to dam connectivity inside Zimbabwe’s borders. It was ultimately confirmed that Starlink utilized for a license from POTRAZ in April 2024.

Though SpaceX proprietor Elon Musk is initially from South Africa, he has up to now been unable to launch a Starlink service there. The principle sticking level is the requirement for telecoms operators to fulfill 30% Black Financial Empowerment (BEE) necessities. In October 2025, it was reported that Starlink would look to arrange a BEE-compliant native enterprise unit as soon as rules are amended to permit it to achieve an working license.

Starlink has beforehand dedicated to spending at the very least ZAR500 million ($29 million) to offer free high-speed web to five,000 faculties in South Africa and can make investments ZAR2 billion to construct native infrastructure.

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