Starlink, and local pro-starlink proponents persist in claiming a purported affordable service solution for remote disadvantaged rural schools as the bleeding-heart reason for giving Starlink license to operate its 100% foreign-owned LEO service in Namibia.
Local pro-Starlink proponents, as well as Starlink itself, argue that it is vital for the Starlink service to connect underserved schools in remote areas, boosting education and bridging the digital divide where “local providers have failed thus far”.
This is simply bad press.
As a rural user of the affordable 4G/LTE internet service provided me by both Telecom and Paratus, I really have no qualms supporting a transparent regulatory environment that is fair, pragmatic, and forward looking with respect to the Starlink license application.
A Starlink license to operate in Namibia will certainly encourage the state-owned Namibian players to improve the quality (if not the costs) of their present and growing 4G and fibre services nationwide!
I trust that the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia, policymakers, and all ICT stakeholders will recognize that the licensing of Starlink (and other future LEO players) is in our best national interest.
However, I write this as a cautionary note about our government accepting this Starlink license application on the face of bad press.
Access to education in Namibia remains complicated due to the lack of basic infrastructure resources such as libraries, toilets, potable water, electricity, computers and other contemporary devices, the internet, classrooms and school desks. Without addressing these issues, further efforts to improve the education system will be significantly hindered.
Investing in local energy infrastructure, as well as basic infrastructure needs of education, are key steps towards creating equal conditions for accessing education in underserved rural Namibia. We should recognize that renewable energy, modern information communication technologies (especially high speed uncapped broadband internet) and quality school infrastructure are fundamentals for sustainable development of our education system in rural Namibia.
Namibian politicians, including our founding President, ministers of education and ICT and diverse parliamentarians then and now, have variously promised and even pursued free school internet from 2003-2023, driven by national plans (like Xnet, Vision 2030 and Harambee) and international partnerships (like Schoolnet, TDS and Giga), but progress has been slow due to funding (estimated to require some N$ 300 million in 2022), logistic hurdles (a dispersed rural population, obsolete infrastructure and lack of practicable technical support), and implementation gaps, with significant numbers of schools remaining unconnected, despite digital initiatives and policy goals for universal broadband internet access.
As of early 2025, Namibia had some 456 schools with 4G internet coverage, out of approximately 1,947 total schools, but a serious gap remains, with reports from 2022 indicating roughly 1,300 to 1,400 schools lacking ICT infrastructure entirely (New Era interview with Minister Emma Theofelus 10 March 2025).
While highlighting progress in mobile internet ‘access’ for education, our state-owned internet service providers Telecom and MTC, and now Paratus and Starlink repeatedly assert the benefits of their seemingly philanthropic internet services to remote disadvantaged rural schools while glaringly avoiding the real costs and practicalities of sustainable internet access at remote rural schools. Especially in regions like Kunene, Omusati, Kavango East, Kavango West and Zambezi.
There is the matter of long term cost of ownership linked to a pervasive view that the internet provided for education is expected to provide access to a MEIYSAC and NQA-approved online e-learning platform(s) conforming to their Senior Secondary Certification requirements. There have been several attempts to provide such holistic online e-learning solutions, notably with NAMCOL and LearnonOne resources since the restrictions caused by Covid in 2020. And enthusiasm for free, open source Moodle as a learning management and content development tool for pedagogues, appears not to have waned.
Sadly, the very pertinent notion of school internet providing safe access to free, extremely well-vetted information resources from the Commonwealth of Learning, Wikipedia, the Khan Academy and others in library resource centres, to learners and teachers with smart phones and tablets, is seemingly lost on educational advisors in Namibia. Learners generally face restricted smartphone use at public schools, with a ministry ban largely in place due to distraction concerns, but apparently new 2025 guidelines allow use as supervised learning tools in senior secondary grades.
The Digital School Pilot Project (TDS) serving 16 schools in Namibia was launched in 2024 and is funded by international partners. According to the TDS website, this project will provide a mobile, solar-powered, internet-connected classroom with computer technologies for 20 learners. [https://thedigitalschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TDS-Progress-and-Impact-Report-Final.pdf]
The Giga school connectivity initiative, a joint project by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), maps school internet access globally, finds sustainable financing, and will attempt to connect every school to the internet by 2030. At present, it has mapped school connectivity in some 2000 schools in Namibia, and monitors real-time internet connectivity – presently 220 schools appear to be active [https://maps.giga.global/map/country/na].
CRAN’s recent N$ 145 million USF project funding to MTC and Telecom for 9 additional 4G sites in remote parts of northern Namibia will offer free 4G internet to 16 schools for 7 years. MTC even throws in some specially discounted smart phones! There is no mention of further support for the infrastructure required to accommodate longer-term MEIYSAC objectives.
Paratus, with its Edulink offering, and Eduvision partnership, has indicated that they subsidize and support 22 Namibian schools with internet access to a proprietary e-learning solution which provides Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics courseware for learners in grades 10-12 at these schools. Paratus appears to have an Edulink deal with Starlink for other African countries, but no news about Namibia yet.
While Paratus suggests that Starlink LEO technology will considerably reduce the cost of their Edulink internet service to these schools, they omit to provide the hidden costs of sustained internet access for e-learning purposes at these 22 schools. With generous local corporate support, donated refurbished computers and Eduvision’s N$ 120 000 hardware, a monthly fee of N$ 1000 / course (four grade 10-12 courses) and the projected cost of a Starlink 2TB local priority 36 month contract package (payable in foreign currency, based on the Paratus Botswana offering) is N$ 9,821 / month. Imported Starlink hardware is currently valued at N$ 6,530. While this equipment can theoretically serve up to 235 internet-connected devices, it is optimally used by no more than 10-20 devices. How do Starlink and Edulink expect to manage internet use by hundreds of IT-savvy smartphone users at schools (even in remote rural areas)?
Starlink has not yet made any public announcement as to how they, too, will invest in Namibia’s education sector and subsidize their internet solution for remote rural schools in Namibia. In South Africa, Starlink promised to invest R 500 Million in 5000 schools (even though South Africa has some 25,000+ public schools!) if they are successful in their bid to operate there without BEE partnerships.
Assuming license approval, successful implementation will require addressing multiple technical and administrative challenges. How will a Starlink investment be structured and monitored in Namibia? What mechanisms will ensure that promised school connectivity actually materializes? How will success be measured beyond simple connection statistics?
Coordination between Starlink, potential local commercial partners like Paratus, educational authorities, and local communities will determine whether improved technological capability will translate to educational improvement and free access to relevant information.
Any Starlink investment should cover setup and early operational costs, but ongoing maintenance and service provision require sustainable financing models. Will these schools eventually also pay for services (after seven years)? How will service quality be maintained as the network and maintenance and support requirements scale? These operational questions will determine whether a Starlink investment will truly generate a lasting impact or merely provide temporary connectivity improvements.
Our government needs to consider the entire cost of school computing solutions when buying into novel ICT proposals, especially by foreign agencies. A total cost of ownership model takes into account recurrent and hidden costs such as teacher training, support and maintenance, and the cost of replacing obsolete ICT hardware every five to seven years.
I’m hoping that CRAN and the relevant line-function ministries will insist on well-considered operational and financial conditions on Starlink’s license proposal; especially weighed against their claim of a purported affordable service solution for remote disadvantaged rural schools in Namibia.
Joris Komen
Founding director of Schoolnet Namibia (2000-2010)
ADDENDUM
“Starlink’s parent company SpaceX wrote to the telecoms regulator ICASA last year saying that local shareholding laws were a significant barrier and that it should rethink the 30% ownership requirement for licensees.
South Africa’s Electronic Communications Act requires foreign-owned communications licensees to sell 30% of equity in their local subsidiaries to historically disadvantaged groups – a provision criticised by Starlink and other companies.
In his policy direction published in a government gazette on Friday, Communications Minister Solly Malatsi said so-called “equity equivalent” investment programmes in the sector should count toward empowerment goals.
The policy changes will allow communications companies, including Starlink, to bypass the 30% equity requirement, instead recognizing investments in things like digital infrastructure.
Starlink one step closer to becoming a reality in South Africa
tatejoris; personally speaking... 