Starlink Expanding in Africa

Starlink, the satellite broadband provider operated by SpaceX, is growing its presence in Africa—and we have updates for 2025.

Globally, as of October 2025, Starlink was live in over 150 countries and territories. In Africa, its services are now live in 23 countries, with more launches planned for the coming months.

Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency services are useful on a continent where many rural localities have poor or non-existent fixed and/or mobile network connectivity. The Starlink website also highlights its potential to act as a backup network in the event of natural disasters. 

A History of Starlink in Africa

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

According to one website that tracks Starlink launches, as of October 8, 2025, there were 8,608 satellites in orbit, with more than 8,592 of those operational.

The firm initially received licenses to deploy around 12,000 satellites, while it has also gained approval for an additional 7,500 Gen2 platforms. It has been reported that Starlink has filed applications to add another 30,000 satellites.

Starlink reached the one million subscriber milestone in December 2022. A year later, it had around 2.3 million users, climbing to 4.6 million at end-2024, more than six million by the middle of the year and it hit seven million in August 2025. It does not give a breakdown for its subscriptions in Africa.

Starlink’s First African Launches

After securing international gateway and ISP licenses from the Nigerian Communications Commission in May 2022, Starlink’s first African launch happened in Nigeria in February 2023.

The standard service plan costs NGN57,000 ($38.72) a month, with one-off hardware costs of NGN318,000 ($216). At launch, the hardware retailed at NGN800,000, but the price was almost halved to NGN440,000 in April 2024 and has since fallen further.

The operator had 59,509 subscriptions in Nigeria as of Q1 2025. In major urban areas such as Lagos and Abuja the service has reached capacity and is labelled on the Starlink website as ‘sold out’.

African Expansion: Live Markets and Planned Launches (as of Oct. 2025)

Source: TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database

Along with providing services directly to customers in Nigeria, in July 2023, Starlink signed an agreement with Africa Mobile Networks (AMN).

AMN is a UK-based firm that builds mobile base stations to serve remote communities and then leases capacity to mobile operators. It operates more than 1,500 base stations across Nigeria and is using Starlink terminals to provide data connectivity in areas without access to a fiber backbone.

Starlink’s second African launch came in March 2023 in Rwanda.

A month before its commercial switch-on in March, Starlink was issued its operating license and introduced a pilot service covering 500 schools. The satellite broadband provider had 4,503 subscriptions at the end of March 2025, according to the latest figures from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority.

These initial two African market launches were followed by six more through the course of 2023—in Mozambique, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Benin, and Eswatini.

In September 2023, Namibia-based telco Paratus Group signed a reseller agreement with Starlink, allowing Paratus to offer satellite broadband services to its clients across Africa. The agreement initially covered Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, and Nigeria, before being rolled out to more countries.

Having launched in eight African countries by the end of 2023, it doubled its footprint the following year. The first seven months of 2025 brought a further seven launches, in Liberia, Niger, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Chad.

Regulatory Issues for Starlink Expansion in Africa

With a number of regulatory hurdles in its way, things have not been entirely trouble-free for Starlink in Africa.

In November 2023, the company was forced to push back its planned launch in Angola from Q4 2023 to Q3 2024, due to a delay in obtaining the requisite operating concessions from the Angolan Institute of Communications (Instituto Angolano das Comunicacoes). While rival low earth orbit provider Eutelsat gained a 15-year license in Angola in July 2025, Starlink is still waiting in the wings, with a launch still to take place as of October 2025.

In January 2024, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) warned nationals that Starlink was not yet licensed and the use of its services in Zimbabwe was therefore illegal. Some locals had been signing up for a roaming plan in neighboring countries where the service was live and importing equipment from abroad.

A few months later, POTRAZ went on to order the U.S. firm to block connectivity within Zimbabwe’s borders. It was eventually confirmed that Starlink applied for a license from POTRAZ in April 2024.

Although SpaceX owner Elon Musk is originally from South Africa, he has so far been unable to launch a Starlink service there. The main sticking point is the requirement for telecoms operators to meet 30% Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements. In October 2025, it was reported that Starlink would look to set up a BEE-compliant local business unit once regulations are amended to allow it to gain an operating license.

Starlink has previously committed to spending at least ZAR500 million ($29 million) to provide free high-speed internet to 5,000 schools in South Africa and will invest ZAR2 billion to build local infrastructure.

Data on Mobile Markets, Fixed Broadband, and More

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