The National Communications Authority (NCA), Ghana’s telecoms regulator, cautioned the general public Dec. 7 against using services purported to be from Starlink following reports of equipment being sold and operated in the country.
“We wish to inform the general public that, the NCA has neither licensed the operations of Starlink in Ghana nor type-approved any of their equipment,” the NCA said in a news release.
While SpaceX only expects to launch Starlink commercially in Ghana in the third quarter of 2024, the company’s sprawling low Earth orbit network already covers the country and others that have yet to permit the services.
Regulators in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Senegal have recently issued similar warnings to the public and Starlink resellers operating without permission.
It seems like third-parties are buying Starlink terminals and reselling them in regions where Starlink service is not yet available. Does this even work? I was under the impression that Starlink terminals were geo-locked to a specific region/cell. Is this no longer the case?
I'm also slightly confused at this section:
Those providing Starlink services in South Africa without permission could face a fine of around $264,000 or 10% of their annual turnover for every day the offense continued, whichever is greater, the regulator warned.
Who would receive the fine? SpaceX for providing service where they weren't supposed to, or the Starlink terminal resellers for selling hardware where they weren't supposed to?
It would make sense for SpaceX to offer lower prices for Africa for example.
They already cover the area, and it will be close to free to provide Internet there - they don't need any extra fuel for station-keeping, power comes from the sun anyway, they're not using bandwidth they could otherwise sell to richer customers. Maybe ground station use will cost a bit.
If it's even mildly affordable, communities will come together to buy a terminal they can share. If you don't have terrestrial connections, Starlink will be far more economical than conventional satellite Internet.
Plus they can sell internet to companies doing mineral exploration. That should bring boatloads of money.
I'm already seeing people whose jobs takes them out and about a lot starting to use Starlink as an integral part of their job.