Back in December, the National Communication Authority of Ghana warned Ghanaians to avoid using any Starlink equipment or its services. It also directed those who were involved in the sales and service operations to cease doing so immediately.
The authority cited Section 3(1) of the Electronic Communications Act 2008, Act 775 that stipulates “Except as otherwise provided under this Act, a person shall not operate a public electronic communications service or network or provide a voice telephony service without a licence granted by the Authority, any entity that offers electronic communication in Ghana without licence or authorisation from the Authority is said to have directly violated this act.”
This meant that it was illegal to sell and operate Starlink equipment in the country as Starlink did not have the required licence and approval to operate in the country.
Fast forward to March 2024 and Ghana seems to be easing its stance. This has been influenced by the recent internet outage in most African countries including Ghana. The outage was a result of subsea cable cuts in both West and East Africa.
Service disruption caused by cable cuts have prompted the government to consider approving more internet service providers in the country according to TechPoint Africa. The Ghanaian Communication minister told members of parliament that the country is in the process of licensing Starlink.
TechPoint also reports that the minister has asked other Internet providers to consider expanding their presence into the country and for the existing ones to subscribe to RASCOM (Regional African Satellite Communications Organisation).
Starlink has in the meantime updated its availability map showing that it will be available in Ghana in Q3 of 2024.
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