Airtel Africa teams up with Starlink to bring satellite internet to rural Africa
This new deal could bring connectivity to millions still offline across Africa.
It’s not every day your mobile carrier starts working with a satellite internet company, but that’s exactly what Airtel Africa is doing. The telco giant has struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring Starlink’s high-speed satellite internet to millions of users across the continent.
The rollout kicks off in nine countries where Airtel operates and Starlink already has regulatory approval, including Nigeria, Kenya, the DRC, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Niger, Chad, and Madagascar. Licenses for the remaining five in Airtel’s 14-country footprint are still in the works.
But the goal is clear: use Starlink’s low Earth orbit satellites to reach parts of Africa where fiber and mobile towers can’t—and plug some of the deepest connectivity gaps on the continent.
This move could be a big deal for Airtel, which serves over 163 million people across Africa. With rivals like MTN also testing satellite partnerships, adding Starlink gives Airtel a faster, more flexible way to expand coverage.
For Starlink, it’s a chance to scale far beyond its current 237,000 African subscribers by riding on Airtel’s ground infrastructure and local trust. And it’s not the first time this playbook has worked. In India, Starlink went from being blocked by regulators to signing distribution deals with former rivals like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. That same partnership model now seems to be taking off in Africa too.
If it works, it won’t just mean more signal bars for users—it could open the door to online education, remote work, e-commerce, and digital health services for about 600 million Africans, per Statista, who currently lack internet access. Whether it’s enough to narrow Africa’s digital divide remains to be seen, but this partnership is a bold first step.
Because sometimes, the fastest way to reach the ground is from space.
Kelechi Edeh
