Hundreds of Starlink customers in South Africa lose service access

Several South African customers of Starlink have lost access to the satellite Internet service due to claimed trademark and copyright infringements. This was initially reported by MyBroadband after noting complaints from Starlink users who use StarSat Africa to manage their accounts, made on 8 February 2024.

These users reported that their connection was offline, with one customer stating they had been without service since 6 February. Despite Starlink not being officially available within South Africa, its roaming services can be used there. However, Starlink cannot directly ship its dish and router kit to South Africa, it has to be registered and delivered to a supported country first.

StarSat Africa is one company that imports Starlink kits for South African users, and also provides a managed service for account registration and payments. Upon enquiry, StarSat Africa confirmed the loss of service for between 350-400 customers due to account lockouts by Starlink.

According to StarSat Africa, SpaceX found that Starlink services were being resold in breach of terms of use and that its trademarked logo and pictures of its equipment were being used without consent for marketing purposes. As a result, they ordered StarSat Africa to stop the unauthorized resales of its services and the use of its brand associated with them.

While StarSat Africa is communicating with SpaceX to reactivate these accounts, it also expressed that their request for becoming an authorized Starlink reseller was turned down by SpaceX. Because of this, the company is steering its customers to manage their own accounts.

Despite Starlink allowing third-party stores to sell its residential kits, the subscription itself must be directly paid to Starlink. This approach poses issues for Starlink’s debut in South Africa, as multiple licenses are required from ICASA, a process that is both time-consuming and expensive.

SpaceX is also unlikely to meet the 30% ownership by historically marginalized groups required for license application under South Africa’s Electronic Communications Act. Furthermore, SpaceX has reportedly demonstrated unwillingness to collaborate with local ISPs that currently hold these licenses.