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Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite Internet service provider, has been in regulatory limbo in South Africa. Its service is not officially available in the country, but South Africans have managed to use it anyway. Now, that workaround is going to disappear.

What happened? Starlink has started enforcing a travel registration requirement for customers using its international roaming service in South Africa. Some users who were still getting Internet through imported Starlink kits have received notifications asking them to register their travel details or lose access.

Explain like I’m new here: The Internet provider has been caught up in a regulatory dispute over how it would meet the country’s requirements for foreign companies operating in the telecommunications market, including rules around black economic empowerment (BEE) and ownership. 

Starlink offered to invest in South Africa as a workaround to prevent giving up equity. A rule allowing foreign telecom providers to operate in the country has faced fierce political opposition, keeping Starlink locked out. 

What’s the shortcut? South Africans bought Starlink hardware and registered their accounts in countries where the service was officially available. They then used Starlink Roam, a feature for customers who take their Starlink kit with them while travelling. 

Why does Starlink care? For a while, Starlink let this slide. South African users could keep connecting even though the service wasn’t officially supported locally. That started changing in 2024, when Starlink began enforcing a 60-day continuous-use limit in South Africa. 

For some users, that allowance was later reduced to 30 days and eventually as little as seven days. The latest travel registration requirement gives Starlink another way to identify who is actually travelling and who is using Roam as a workaround.

So, what now? South Africans relying on roaming should expect that route to become difficult to use. Starlink’s registration process requires information such as a customer’s name, nationality, date of birth, and government-issued identification, making it much harder to disguise a permanent South African user as a traveller.