Starlink is in the process of appointing a Sub-Saharan Africa representative, who will have a number of responsibilities including obtaining a license in Ghana and South Africa where the use of Starlink was recently declared illegal.
Nigeria was the country in Africa where Starlink’s services was launched, but in a job ad, Starlink said its Global Licensing Activation Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa will be seated in Nairobi, Kenya and report to the Starlink team at MacGregor, Texas.
According to the ad, the chosen candidate will spearhead the firm’s effort to obtain ISP licences in more African countries like Ghana, South Africa and Senegal where it is illegal to sell and use Starlink.
In others like Zimbabwe, the government is still reviewing Starlink’s licence application. Currently, Starlink is live in Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Nigeria, and more recently eSwatini.
Currently, some people still use Starlink in Ghana but on the lowkey. Techfocus24 is however aware that prior to the National Communications Authority (NCA) declaring Starlink illegal in Ghana, they had met with a team from Starlink on a number of occasions to discuss licensing issues.
Starlink had long announced on its website that it was going to go live in Ghana in the fourth quarter of 2023, which it did without obtaining the necessary license or authorization from the NCA.
The company has now started its direct-to-mobile services without routing signals through a starter pack. But the first rollout of the service was in collaboration with T-Mobile, which makes experts say Starlink will still need to collaborate with MNO’s to roll out its direct-to-cell services.
Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has also recently hinted that government is contemplating putting an expert group together to come up with a proposal on how to license space technology operators like SpaceX, which can be operated as direct satellite to mobile service providers just like the MNOs.
Meanwhile, the choice of Kenya to host Starlink’s Africa office does not come as a surprise. Big tech companies like Google and Amazon launched their first development centres in the country. Microsoft launched its first African headquarters in the country too. The East African country also emerged as the top destination for investors in 2023, beating Nigeria and Egypt.