Namibia said Monday it had rejected a request for billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink to operate its satellite internet services in the country, dealing the company a second setback in southern Africa.<\/p>\n
Starlink had applied for the licence through its local unit, Starlink Internet Services Namibia (Pty) Limited, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) said in a government gazette.<\/p>\n
Starlink provides high-speed internet access to remote locations around the world via thousands of low Earth orbit satellites.<\/p>\n
The regulator gave no explanation for the refusal, saying only that “the full reasons for the decision can be requested from the authority.”<\/p>\n
AFP sought comment from CRAN but had not received a response.<\/p>\n
However, CRAN’s statement noted that Starlink’s local subsidiary has no local ownership.<\/p>\n
US-based Starlink, which counters criticism on its website with a “Myth vs Fact” page, says it established the Namibian company and plans to partner with local firms to create jobs and economic opportunities.<\/p>\n
Starlink has failed to secure a licence in neighbouring South Africa, where ownership rules have also blocked its entry.<\/p>\n
Telecommunications companies operating in South Africa, including those with foreign investment, are currently required to provide 30 percent equity to historically disadvantaged groups — a policy created to mitigate the legacy of racial inequality left by apartheid.<\/p>\n
South Africa-born Musk has refused to cede ownership, calling the black empowerment policy “openly racist”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Namibia said Monday it had rejected a request for billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink to operate its satellite internet services in the country, dealing the company a second setback in southern Africa. Starlink had applied for the licence through its local unit, Starlink Internet Services Namibia (Pty) Limited, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Africa News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2362,30],"tags":[3462,60,3463],"class_list":["post-20249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured","category-southern-africa","tag-elon-musk","tag-namibia","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20250,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20249\/revisions\/20250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}