Elon Musk skips South African satellite hearing amid industry pushback

Details: Manny Pham; Category: Satellite Networks; 06 February 2025; 10811 views

Elon Musk’s SpaceX withdrew from a planned public hearing where it was set to propose a new licensing framework for satellite services in South Africa, drawing criticism from an industry body representing MNOs.

TechCentral reported that regulator ICASA began the hearing yesterday, but SpaceX, which operates the satellite service Starlink, failed to attend and present its case for satellite regulation reform. ICASA said Starlink had informed it of the decision to withdraw and had submitted a written statement instead.

Musk had been lobbying the South African government to reconsider its 30% shareholding requirement for “historically disadvantaged” groups, a Black Economic Empowerment policy.

The South African industry body, the Association for Communications and Technology (ACT), urged the country’s communications regulator to maintain fairness as Musk pushes for changes to satellite licensing rules.

ACT argued that updating satellite regulations solely to accommodate Musk’s LEO satellite service, Starlink, would be flawed and that a more “holistic” overhaul is needed instead.

Some in the industry have labelled Musk’s Starlink a major threat to MNOs, given its proposition of providing connectivity via a fleet of 7,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit.