Starlink Goes Live in Côte d’Ivoire
Starlink is now available in Côte d’Ivoire, with SpaceX confirming that customers in the country can order the service and begin connecting. The go-live follows the authorisation granted by the Ivorian government in June 2026, making Côte d’Ivoire the 27th African market where the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet service is commercially available.
The service operates under a 12-month provisional licence issued to Starlink Network CIV by the national telecommunications regulator, the Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications/TIC de Côte d’Ivoire (ARTCI), permitting the provision of fixed high-speed satellite internet nationwide. The authorisation was announced by Djibril Ouattara, Minister of Digital Transition and Technological Innovation, during the government’s Gouv’Talk dialogue series, with the licence terms to be reviewed at the end of the provisional period based on service quality.
The regulatory path was not immediate. ARTCI’s Regulatory Council authorised the specific low-Earth orbit frequency bands for Starlink Network CIV through a decision in September 2025, formalised by a regulatory order, after the regulator had earlier warned in 2024 that the company held none of the licences then required to operate in the country. The provisional authorisation therefore marks a shift from an enforcement posture to the supervision of a licensed operator, with Starlink authorised to operate across multiple frequency bands, including Ka-band and V-band spectrum, under conditions that allow ARTCI to remotely monitor and, where necessary, restrict specific frequencies.
The government has positioned the launch as a tool for closing rural connectivity gaps. According to the ministry, Starlink is expected to improve access in remote communities, schools, and health facilities that remain underserved by fibre and mobile infrastructure.
Entering a Contested Market
Unlike several of Starlink’s earlier African launches, Côte d’Ivoire is not an empty field. The country already has two established satellite broadband competitors: Orange Côte d’Ivoire, which partnered with Eutelsat in January 2026 to launch a service branded Orange Sat, and MTN Côte d’Ivoire, which followed in April 2026 with a multi-year agreement to deliver connectivity using Eutelsat Konnect’s high-throughput capacity. Both incumbents combine satellite capacity with existing brand recognition, mobile-money ecosystems, and large retail networks, advantages Starlink’s direct-to-consumer model does not replicate.
Pricing will shape the competition, and Starlink’s entry pricing is more aggressive than earlier estimates suggested. Starlink lists its residential plan, offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps, at CFA 28,746 (USD 50) per month. For hardware, the company sells the Standard kit for CFA 247,466 (USD 431) and the lower-cost Mini kit for CFA 148,148 (USD 258). This pricing places the Mini kit broadly in line with the roughly CFA 150,000 (USD 261) charged for competing local satellite kits, rather than at the two-to-three-times premium Starlink charges in some other markets.
The Mini kit therefore narrows what has historically been Starlink’s main adoption barrier in Africa, upfront hardware cost, even if the Standard kit still carries a premium. The likely market outcome is a dual structure rather than a single winner: satellite as a wholesale infrastructure and backhaul layer for the incumbent telcos on one side, and Starlink’s direct-to-user and small-enterprise proposition on the other.
The launch also coincides with Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial 5G rollout, which begins in cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants via Orange, MTN, and Moov Africa. The pairing is deliberate: faster mobile networks target urban demand while satellite links target rural coverage, addressing two distinct connectivity gaps in the same period. Both sit within a broader government digital agenda spanning e-government, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and skills, part of the country’s stated ambition to become a leading digital hub in French-speaking West Africa.
For Starlink, Côte d’Ivoire marks a rapid pan-African expansion that began in 2023 with Nigeria and Rwanda and has since expanded to include markets such as Senegal and Uganda. The more telling test is no longer regulatory approval but commercial performance: whether Starlink’s coverage advantage in underserved areas can offset its hardware premium against incumbents already investing in the same segment.