Starlink oversubscribed in Africa
November 7, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Starlink is pausing its subscriber drive in several African countries because of “soaring demand for its broadband service”. SpaceX says too many users are trying to access the Starlink service in those regions which are currently at network capacity. One local commentator said that Starlink demand has been “skyrocketing”.
One source said that Starlink’s network capacity has reached its limit, forcing the company to put a hold on taking on new customers. It was not immediately clear which African cities or regions have been affected.
Expert commentary says that some Africa regions are suffering an infrastructure deficit where even urban areas lack fibre, and where users who are depending on cellular services find them inadequate and slow.
Elon Musk admitted (via X) that it was Africa’s urban centres which were suffering, noting: “Please note that there is still significant capacity outside of city centres.”
November 7th is due to see SpaceX target two Starlink launches. One will be on the California coast from Vandenburg Air Force Base to loft 13 Starlink ‘direct-to-cellular’ craft as well as seven conventional broadband satellites. The second launch is scheduled from Cape Canaveral and is due to carry 23 Starlink broadband satellites into low Earth orbit.
As at November 5th SpaceX had launched 7,118 Starlink satellites of which 5,922 were working as planned.
SpaceX has also now launched 400 of its Falcon 9 reusable rockets. The firm says that while it will not quite manage its original target of 144 launches this year, it is still targeting 30 more launches before the year ends. Its total for 2023 was 96 launches.