Elon Musk’s Starlink goes dark in South Africa

SpaceX introduced a travel registration requirement for its roaming feature in October 2026, limiting South Africans’ use of the high-speed satellite Internet service.

The company now requires people who wish to use roaming to submit their travel plans and copies of their official identification documents.

The new step has closed a loophole that previously enabled South Africans to use Starlink roaming as a semi-permanent broadband connection in the country.

While not officially launched in South Africa, Starlink has been beaming connectivity to the country through its roaming service since 2023.

For the first year and a half of availability, locals who imported Starlink kits registered in overseas markets where the service had already launched enjoyed unrestricted access.

That technically violated Starlink’s Terms of Service, which stated that roaming could only be used for 60 days at a time before the user had to return to their home country.

Starlink only began cutting off users who had exceeded that allowance in mid-2024. Many local users found other ways to bypass the limitation.

Some returned their kits to their country of registration and used them for a few hours to reset the allowance. Others only intermittently switched off their service.

In 2025, Starlink further reduced the continuous use period to 30 days. In some cases, users were cut off within seven days.

On Friday, 23 October 2026, the handful of remaining die-hard users received a notification that their Starlink service had been restricted.

“You’re using your Starlink outside your account country. Complete travel registration to restore service,” it stated. An updated Starlink FAQ page provided more details.

“Travel Registration is required for Starlink use outside your home country for all account types, except Enterprise,” the page explained.

“If you plan to travel to destinations listed under ‘Add Travel Plans,’ you may also need to submit destination-specific information.”

To register, users must go to their settings and add their travel plans, including any destination-specific plans.

They must also typically submit their full legal name, nationality, date of birth, and either their passport number or a government-issued photo ID, along with copies of both.

Starlink in launch limbo in South Africa

The restriction differs from that in countries where Starlink has completely suspended roaming due to legal demands from authorities, such as Namibia.

To date, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has not issued a cease-and-desist order or other instruction to terminate Starlink roaming in the country.

The mechanism enables Starlink to distinguish between South Africans and foreign travellers visiting the country who wish to use the service during a trip.

Unless a local user submitted fraudulent information, Starlink would be able to see that the user was a South African using the service in their home country.

Starlink has not applied for a licence to offer its residential and business services in South Africa as it does not meet the necessary ownership requirements.

The Electronic Communications Act requires telecoms licensees to be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged people.

Starlink does not want to hand off 30% of its equity or work through a third party that already meets the requirement so it can resell the service in South Africa.

Doing so would increase the price and introduce an intermediary for technical support and billing for the service.

In some political corners, its resistance has been criticised as being anti-transformation, which the company has denied.

Starlink has committed to providing free connectivity to 5,000 rural schools at a cost of R500 million, as part of a proposed Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP).

The transformation mechanism is used as an alternative to ownership requirements in Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment in several industries.

While communications minister Solly Malatsi issued a policy directive to ICASA to adopt EEIPs in the telecoms sector, the regulator insists that a change to the law is necessary.

While the minister has indicated his department intends to pursue this change, it will likely take years for public consultation and approval at various government levels.