CONTROVERSIAL South Africa-born billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s Starlink has not applied for a license to operate in South Africa, despite claiming that broad-based black economic empowerment laws are preventing his company from setting up.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has indicated that Starlink has not yet applied for a license.

In South Africa, Starlink is listed as “service date is unknown”, while it is starting in 2025 in Lesotho, Namibia, Tanzania, Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its services are available in eSwatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Burundi, among other African countries.

The Electronic Communications Act of 2005 states that a person may only apply for an individual licence under an invitation published by Icasa calling upon persons to do so, and this invitation must be given through a notice of the application published in the Government Gazette.

Persons applying for licences are also required to include the percentage of equity ownership to be held by persons from historically disadvantaged groups, which must not be less than 30%, or such other conditions or higher percentage as may be prescribed under the Icasa Act.

According to the regulatory authority, the ownership element measures the effective ownership of an enterprise by Black people, who must own a minimum of 30% of the entity’s shareholding and failure to meet the 30% target does not render the entity non-compliant but rather affects the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) status level.

In a written submission to Icasa in January, SpaceX said that the regulation effectively excludes foreign satellite operators, particularly those with direct-to-consumer business models like Starlink. The company said that its global policies prohibit local shareholding, making compliance impossible.

SpaceX argued that the rigid ownership structure remains an obstacle even when foreign operators are willing to meet B-BBEE requirements.

The company urged Icasa to align its regulations with the ICT sector code, which allows for equity-equivalent programs as an alternative to local ownership.

“If ICASA removes this barrier, it would not only increase foreign investment in South Africa but also support industry growth, encourage competition, and drive innovation,” SpaceX said in its submission.

Dominic Cull, a specialist in electronic communications policy, law and regulation, said low earth orbit (LEO) satellites already exist in South Africa.

”Obviously, the biggest names in the industry, we are not seeing in South Africa even though we see them a lot in the rest of Africa and around the world,” he said.

Cull said there was a need to review the country’s regulatory framework as it was not built around these types of services to make it attractive to the LEO service providers.

Additionally, he said South Africa should look at what it can do to encourage them to build infrastructure and not just have the satellites in orbit but also build earth stations and gateway infrastructure, which will make the service much better.

”We want to encourage them by reducing spectrum licenses, making South Africa a very attractive destination for them to invest. At the same time, we have existing laws around licenses and transformation. So while we have this process looking forward, to change that and make it easier for them to enter the market,” he said.

Cull added that while Starlink has not applied for a license in the country, they have incorporated a local company, Starlink South Africa.

”If they wanted to and were able to comply with the current requirements, particularly around transformation, then they would be in a position to launch services in weeks or perhaps months,” he explained.

The Association for Communications and Technology (ACT), which was established by the country’s six largest telecommunications operators – Cell C, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, MTN, RAIN, Telkom and Vodacom – has stated that the current universal service and access framework in South Africa requires an urgent and holistic review and that considering a satellite specific approach without first taking stock of the existing situation, would result in a perpetuation of a broken system.

ACT was responding to Icasa on the regulator’s proposed new licensing framework for satellite broadband services issued for public comment in August last year.

The association’s chief executive, Nomvuyiso Batyi, did not respond to questions this week.

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi has indicated that he was open to implementing equity equivalents instead of the 30% Black ownership requirement for companies to obtain licenses.

Malatsi’s spokesperson, Kwena Moloto, did not respond to enquiries, but Cull said in his understanding the review did not mean companies will ignore their transformation obligations but would be given more flexibility around the 30% Black ownership requirement.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za

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Starlink yet to apply for SA operating license despite Elon Musk's B-BBEE claims