The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), the country’s telecoms regulator, has rejected Starlink’s application for a telecom licence and access to radio spectrum. While CRAN said it would issue a statement later, and there is a 90‑day window to revisit the decision, for Starlink, which has been steadily expanding across Africa, it’s a no for now.
The regulator did not specify a reason for the licence rejection, but Starlink will be sitting puppy-eyed, hoping the regulator overturns the decision within 90 days.
Catch up: Starlink’s planned entry into Namibia began in 2024, when it met with President Nangolo Mbumba to discuss possible investments in the country. Since then, its motive has been viewed suspiciously, with economic analysts, Mally Likukela and Josef Kefas Sheehama saying it would threaten competition in Namibia’s telecom market. In November 2024, CRAN issued a cease-and-desist, saying Starlink was operating without a licence and warned consumers against using its kits.
Open to telecoms sector expansion, just not this one: Namibia’s regulator has recently publicly supported expanding the country’s telecoms sector, even stating that the market can accommodate more players.
Its mobile data prices sit somewhere in the regional middle, with 1GB of data averaging around $1.2 in 2023, higher than in cheap‑data markets like Nigeria or Ghana but far below the most expensive countries in Africa.
In African markets where Starlink is already live—from Kenya and Mozambique to Zambia, Malawi, Liberia, and others—standard residential subscriptions typically range from about $30 to $50 a month, with hardware kits often priced above $200, putting the service firmly in premium territory relative to what most people spend on mobile data.
That helps explain the regulator’s caution. Starlink is not a cheap retail substitute for mobile data; it is a high‑capacity satellite pipe that can make sense for businesses, farms, schools, and Internet service providers (ISPs) that sit far from fibre, but it also hands a lot of pricing power to one foreign operator in a small market. While Namibia says it wants more competition, it may not want a player whose model could pull profitable, high‑value customers off local networks while leaving incumbents to serve everyone else.
Starlink problem or industry pattern? Starlink has faced regulatory friction in multiple African markets, most notably South Africa, where licencing remains stuck in policy debates. Yet, the satellite Internet company successfully entered the Central African Republic in December 2025 and Senegal in February 2026, revealing how regulators are split about the technology’s role in their local telecoms markets and broader economies.
Today, Starlink is available in 26 African countries, but Namibia’s pushback is a reminder that not every regulator wants the same kind of disruption at the same time.
