The introduction of Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet service, in South Africa has sparked significant debate and controversy, revolving around issues of legality, regulatory compliance, and socio-economic impact. While Starlink promises to revolutionize internet access, particularly in rural and underserved areas, its operations have faced opposition and scrutiny due to conflicts with existing South African laws and policies.
The Promise of Starlink
Starlink's technology, which relies on a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites, would be a potential game-changer for South African users who’ve historically faced expensive or unreliable internet options. For what it's worth, having some sort of wireless internet service provider does make a lot of sense for South Africa. Access to the web comes in at a dismal 1.7% of rural households, which are majority Black.
Legal and Regulatory Hurdles
SpaceX submitted a letter to the government of South Africa asking it for an exemption from post-apartheid laws meant to help bring Black citizens out of the poverty imposed upon them by the former state. The rules SpaceX is arguing against require communications companies (and many others) to have a certain percentage of ownership and control by Black South Africans, as explained by Bloomberg, which obtained the letter.
These regulations are part of the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) system, which was put in place during the 1990s as apartheid collapsed in the country, and enterprises (nearly all white-owned) had to figure out how to navigate the new political and social reality. It's been a fairly rocky road since, and the BEE system isn't universally popular. Just this month, the Economist published an article arguing against the system, citing an estimate that it ends up costing South Africa's GDP about 2-4%.
Given that Musk spent the first few months of this year trying to transform American government, he's made it clear that he's willing to take a chainsaw to regulations, and regulators, that he doesn't like (which is to say, pretty much all of them). Back in March he posted on X - the social media site he owns - that "Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I'm not black," in a clear reference to the BEE laws.
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Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I'm not black
How Starlink Could Revolutionize Global Internet Connectivity
Meanwhile, the government has given a number of industries exemptions already, including to automakers BMW, Ford, and Toyota. SpaceX's letter does proposes setting up alternatives to the BEE system; as a reference, the car companies which achieved similar carve-outs set up a fund to help Black South Africans get into the automotive industry.
Opposition and Concerns
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) firmly opposes the illegal operations of Starlink in South Africa and any attempt to rewrite or bend existing telecommunications regulations to accommodate this foreign monopoly. SAFTU does not support B-BBEE, which we regard as an elite enrichment scheme that has failed the black working class.
However, South African laws must not be formulated, shaped or amended by an external imperial force in the interest of its billionaire class. The responsibility and the power to change flawed laws is the prerogative of the South African working class and no external force must usurp that power. Starlink is not a neutral internet service.
SAFTU calls on Parliament, ICASA, and all South Africans to defend our sovereignty against corporate capture. South Africa introduced BEE rules after the end of apartheid, during which Black people were subjugated and excluded from the formal economy by the ruling White minority.
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Government's Proposed Workaround
The government is proposing an equity equivalent regulatory change as a way around Black ownership rules designed to redress the inequities of apartheid, according to a government document seen by Bloomberg. The government had been planning to offer Musk a workaround to the ownership rules ahead of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House this week, Bloomberg reported previously. The equity equivalent plan will form part of the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies’ medium-term plans, according to the document.
The auto industry in 2019 signed up for a similar workaround that involved the largest car manufacturers - including BMW AG, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.
Global Context and Regulatory Challenges
Elon Musk's satellite network Starlink is rapidly expanding across the Global South amid a lack of industry regulation. Starlink is the dominating power in providing satellite Internet services globally. Its competitors don't even come close. And Musk is expanding Starlink to countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean that have historically suffered from infrastructure issues.
Starlink has a significant advantage when it comes to having far more satellites than any other country, and so that's one thing that allows Starlink to have a bigger advantage over other places. The other issue is that Starlink is able to use SpaceX's reusable rockets, and so that gives a cost advantage to Starlink over any other provider. Those rockets are far cheaper and far more efficient in terms of bringing up satellites than other countries have.
Many countries would really benefit from having greater connectivity for their populations. And there's been a lot of problems that countries have had when it comes to going the last mile and being able to provide connectivity to their citizens, especially in rural, hard-to-reach areas. And so Starlink provides a very easy solution to get around that problem.
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But on the flip side, as Bolivia has articulated - and other countries as well - there's concerns that relying on a single provider, particularly one that is as politically oriented as the owner of Starlink, Elon Musk, can be really dangerous from a country's sovereignty perspective. What if Starlink decides to cut connectivity, which has happened in other arenas? What options does that country then have? Those kind of questions makes governments very nervous, particularly those that may not have a foreign policy that is directly aligned with the United States.
Essentially in a situation like that, you are dependent on having an alignment with Elon Musk's views, and if he sees things differently, then you could, all of a sudden, find yourself in a pinch. A good example occurred with Ukraine. Ukraine was putting together military operations in the Crimea against Russia and was using Starlink satellites as a means to help facilitate those operations. After a phone call with Russian officials, all of a sudden, that Starlink connectivity was disconnected, and that operation had to be halted right away. That's a good example where a foreign policy's larger interest will trump a country's sovereignty.
Broadband internet providers have to abide by many rules and regulations, but there are relatively few for the satellite internet industry. Well, it's a newer industry. It's one where you see a lag between regulations having caught up to the industry itself. Over time, this is something that will start to get laid out and with more consistency.
There are a lot of questions that have come up when it comes to standards related to cybersecurity, when it comes to how data that is used as part of these systems - to what degree will they be private? There are also questions when it comes to surveillance that potentially can be exploited when it comes to user data.
A good example would be Zimbabwe, where you have a government-related entity that has helped to deploy Starlink satellites there through its communications company. It's unclear to what extent there are privacy guarantees for citizens. And so that's where having a regulatory standard about how privacy data is protected would be really important.
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tags: #Africa
