News

Industries

Companies

Jobs

Events

People

Video

Audio

Galleries

Submit content

My Account

Advertise with us

Musk's Starlink denied telecoms licence in Namibia

Namibia has turned down applications from Elon Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink for a telecommunications service licence and access to radio spectrum, a notice in the Southern African country's government gazette showed.
File photo: SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks on a screen during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, on 29 June 2021. Reuters/Nacho Doce/File Photo
File photo: SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks on a screen during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, on 29 June 2021. Reuters/Nacho Doce/File Photo

* The notice dated March 23 did not say why Starlink's applications were declined.

* The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia could reconsider the decisions "on its own motion or on a petition filed by an aggrieved party" within 90 days, the notice added.

* A spokesperson for the regulator said a statement would be issued later.

* SpaceX, parent company of Starlink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

* Starlink operates in several African countries but has faced regulatory challenges in others and resistance from state telecoms monopolies.

* In November 2024, the Namibian regulator hit Starlink with a cease-and-desist order, saying it had been operating in the country without a licence.

* It also warned consumers against purchasing Starlink equipment and said it had confiscated illegal terminals from consumers. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment at the time.

Source: Reuters

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world's largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day.

Go to: https://www.reuters.com/

About Nyasha Nyaungwa

Nyasha Nyaungwa;Writing by Sfundo Parakozov;Editing by Alexander Winning and Bill Berkrot
More news
Let's do Biz