No Starlink for South Africa as Musk objects to licencing laws

1 comment

1. ***From The Times:***

   A world map plotting the rollout of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service shows South Africa as dark.

   The continent’s most industrialised economy, like some of its nations at war, is tagged “service date is unknown”.

   In countries neighbouring South Africa meanwhile, where Starlink is licensed, off-the-grid communities are logging on for the first time in Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

   Affirmative action laws prevent Musk from launching Starlink in the country of his birth. To qualify for the licence, he would have to provide 30% of the equity in the project to black-owned businesses — a hurdle Musk slammed as “openly racist”.

   Many South Africans detect Musk’s hand on the trigger for some of Washington’s actions, which are reheating deep divisions over the most contentious issues of the post-apartheid era.

Comments are closed.