Starlink quits South Africa satellite discussion
February 10, 2025
By Chris Forrester
Last week the South African government, via its ICASA telecoms regulator, held formal public consultations on a proposed licensing plan for satellite services in the country. But SpaceX, and therefore Starlink, declined to appear.
SpaceX was due to make a presentation to the hearing, but failed to turn up.
According to an ICASA spokeswoman, SpaceX notified the regulator that it would no longer participate in the oral presentations. The company had already made a written submission, which has not been withdrawn. It’s not yet clear why SpaceX decided to withdraw from the hearings.
Elon Musk had earlier made some negative comments about his country of birth, asking President Cyril Ramaphosa via X why the country has what he called “openly racist ownership laws”.
Musk was referring to the requirement for foreign businesses to honour South Africa’s black economic empowerment laws. These rules require a 30 per cent shareholding must be allocated to “historically disadvantaged” groups.
“Many foreign satellite operators, particularly those with direct-to-consumer business models, have global policies that prevent local shareholding, thus excluding them from the South African market. This holds true even when these operators are willing to comply with B-BBEE requirements and invest in initiatives that directly benefit the target communities,” the SpaceX written submission stated.
According to local reports, Ramaphosa called Musk’s father, 78-year old Errol, during the week in an attempt to contact Musk.
Other posts by :
- SES announces €0.25c dividend
- Russia “blinding and destroying” German satellites
- Bank: AST, Starlink, Kuiper targeting $200bn market
- Rivada: Is no news good news?
- SES celebrates Intelsat acquisition
- Pakistan halts broadband direct-from satellite
- India stymies Starlink launch
- Starlink, AST SpaceMobile race for cellular consumers
- Trouble ahoy for foreign D2D satellites over India?