Midrand – Vodacom Group has reached a landmark agreement with Starlink to deliver high speed, low latency broadband to businesses and rural communities across the continent, a development expected to influence connectivity in countries already using Starlink services such as Eswatini. The partnership was unveiled on Wednesday during the African Tech Festival in Cape Town, where both companies outlined how the arrangement will reshape access to digital services.
Vodacom said the integration of Starlink’s satellite backhaul into its mobile network will accelerate the expansion of coverage and improve performance in rural districts. The company noted that remote schools, clinics and communities stand to gain reliable connections that will allow millions of people to access online information and digital services that have long been out of reach.
Under the agreement, Vodacom will be authorised to resell Starlink equipment and services to enterprise and small business customers in its African markets. The group said this flexibility will enable it to design country specific packages that reflect affordability concerns and the operational needs of various sectors. These include mining, oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, retail and financial services. Products developed through this approach range from pay as you use backup internet and unbreakable internet to device as a service and branch network pooling.
Vodacom described Starlink’s high performance internet as complementary to its existing network infrastructure which already includes 4G, 5G, fibre, MPLS, microwave and GEO satellite coverage. The company said the partnership strengthens its broader Vision 2030 strategy, which seeks to grow its customer base to 260 million subscribers and increase the number of financial services users to 120 million within five years.
Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said the collaboration supports the company’s mission to connect every African to the internet and offers a workable solution in areas where traditional infrastructure cannot be deployed. He said the partnership unlocks new opportunities for communities that remain isolated from the digital economy.
Starlink’s Vice President of Operations at SpaceX, Chad Gibbs, said Starlink is already serving customers in 25 African countries and that working with Vodacom will extend reliable, high speed connectivity to even more communities across the continent.
The partnership comes at a time when Starlink remains unavailable in South Africa due to ownership regulations set out in the Electronic Communications Act. These require foreign telecoms service providers to meet strict equity conditions before launching operations. Although Starlink committed in October 2025 to complying with South Africa’s Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment regulations and announced a R2.5 billion investment plan, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa later reiterated that it would act against unauthorised Starlink use in the country.
Earlier in May 2025 the Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, gazetted a draft policy to align ICASA’s ownership regulations with wider ICT transformation tools that go beyond equity, including skills development and enterprise growth. However, the licensing process remains incomplete.
Starlink continues to grow across the rest of the continent. It launched in Somalia in August 2025 three months after receiving an operating licence from the National Communications Authority. In July 2025 the company began service in Chad, also within months of securing its licence. In June 2025 the service went live in Lesotho following the granting of a ten year licence, building on earlier launches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea Bissau.
Starlink has been expanding steadily since its African debut in Nigeria in January 2023. The service is fully operational in Lesotho, Botswana, Ghana, the DRC, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Eswatini, Madagascar, Nigeria, Niger, Liberia, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi.
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