By Ndi Eugene Ndi
Satellite internet service provider Starlink has launched operations in Côte d’Ivoire this month, making the West African nation the 27th on the continent to welcome Elon Musk’s low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation, SpaceX has announced. The July 16 announcement follows a 12-month provisional licence issued to Starlink Network CIV by the Ivorian government in June, SpaceX said in a statement on its website.
While Starlink’s satellites already provide internet services across dozens of African countries, the company remains locked out of Cameroon, where authorities have fiercely resisted its entry.
Starlink’s technical achievements and its role in bridging the digital divide cannot be overemphasised. The space-borne digital juggernaut offers high-speed internet through its low-Earth orbit satellites. In Cameroon, it could help connect households and businesses nationwide and support existing mobile operators by adding capacity in remote areas where terrestrial network hardly reaches.
However, the debate over Starlink’s official authorisation in the country is no longer simply about internet speed or expanding digital access. It has become a test of how much control the government is willing to relinquish over a strategic sector.
Behind public demand for faster and more affordable internet lies a complex web of national security concerns, data sovereignty issues, and market control.
Although Starlink has not obtained official authorisation to operate in Cameroon, many Cameroonians are able to access its services through indirect registration in neighbouring countries.
In 2024, the government issued an outright ban on the service and instructed Customs officials to systematically seize all Starlink terminal kits entering the country at the borders.
“This type of equipment, which enables ultra-fast and unlimited internet access, escapes the oversight of the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) and could compromise national security,” the Director General of Customs wrote in a circular on April 15, 2024, instructing Customs officials to seize Starlink kits at Cameroon’s borders.
For more than two years, the Cameroonian government has resisted Starlink’s application for an operating licence, citing concerns over national sovereignty, national security, data sovereignty, privacy, regulatory oversight, and potential anti-competitive practices, though unconfirmed reports say the kits have continued to be smuggled into the country through porous borders.
While demand for high-speed internet continues to grow among the 41.9 per cent, or roughly 12.6 million active internet users out of the nearly 30 million Cameroonians, according to DataReportal, experts warn that an unregulated rollout of satellite internet could weaken regulatory oversight, complicate lawful interception by security agencies, reduce tax revenues, and place critical communications infrastructure under the control of a foreign private company.
Abdou Mfopa, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert and former President of the Internet Society Cameroon Chapter, agrees that uncontrolled deployment of satellite internet poses a serious threat to digital sovereignty and data privacy. He says if domestic internet traffic routinely leaves Cameroon before returning, the country risks weakening national control over its digital infrastructure.
“Every internet connection generates valuable metadata, including location and usage patterns. When that information is processed outside Cameroon, it raises legitimate privacy concerns because Cameroonian users may fall under foreign legal and surveillance frameworks beyond the oversight of our own institutions,” Mfopa told NewsWatch.
Beyond concerns over data sovereignty arising from foreign ownership of critical communications infrastructure, experts argue that the uncontrolled deployment of satellite internet poses additional risks in a country grappling with multiple security crises. Cameroon continues to face an armed separatist conflict in its English-speaking North West and South West regions, alongside persistent attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in the Far North.
According to reports by Biometric Update, security officials in parts of the Sahel have expressed concerns that jihadist groups in countries such as Mali and Nigeria have exploited Starlink terminals to coordinate terrorist operations. Against this backdrop, analysts warn that if left unregulated, such devices could fall into the hands of non-state armed groups operating in Cameroon, where they could be used for encrypted communications or tactical coordination.
The officials further point to recent conflicts in Ukraine and Iran as evidence of Starlink’s growing dual-use military capabilities, underscoring the strategic implications of allowing unrestricted satellite internet services.
Mfopa explained that in Ukraine, SpaceX restricted Starlink coverage in certain areas, demonstrating that operational decisions can ultimately rest with the provider. Meanwhile, authorities in countries such as Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar have reported cases of Starlink terminals being used by armed groups after being smuggled across borders, allowing them to maintain communications beyond the reach of national telecommunications networks.
“Cameroon’s security environment is unique. We are confronting the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North while also dealing with the armed conflict in the North-West and South-West. If unregistered satellite internet terminals find their way into these theatres, they could provide armed groups with resilient communications that are difficult for national authorities to monitor or disrupt. That is why any discussion about licensing such services must be accompanied by a robust national security and regulatory framework,” Mfopa said.
Contacted to comment on Starlink’s regulatory status, the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (ART) declined to speak, saying the company’s application file was already at the level of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL). The ministry had yet to respond to NewsWatch‘s written request for comment at the time of this report.
However, Business in Cameroon reported that a Starlink delegation met with the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, on June 27, 2025, to discuss the official authorisation of Starlink Cameroun SARL, the company’s local subsidiary.
Beyond security and sovereignty concerns, authorities have also expressed fears over the potential impact of Starlink on competition within Cameroon’s telecommunications sector, particularly its effect on the state-owned Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL), which has invested hundreds of billions of CFA Francs in a terrestrial fiber-optic network, and existing local internet service providers.
CAMTEL owns and operates Cameroon’s over 15,000-kilometre national fibre-optic backbone, over which it enjoys exclusive rights and leases capacity to private mobile network operators. Like in previous years, the telco reported a profitable 2025 financial year with a turnover of FCFA 235 billion and net profit of FCFA 13.78 billion, representing an 8.4 per cent increase from the year 2024.
Some analysts argue that unrestricted competition from Starlink could significantly weaken CAMTEL’s commercial position. In a recently published opinion, Cameroonian scholar, public intellectual and political analyst, Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, argued that if Cameroon eventually authorises Starlink, “CAMTEL’s revenues will collapse, leaving the company as a stranded asset.”
The Harvard University graduate, who frequently writes on Cameroonian politics and governance, further argued that if Starlink were to erode CAMTEL’s market dominance significantly, the broader strategic implications for the government would be far-reaching.
Cameroon has previously ordered internet shutdowns and severe network throttling during periods of political unrest, including at the start of the ongoing separatist conflict in the North West and South West regions, as well as following disputed elections. Such measures have typically relied on directives to CAMTEL and private telecommunications operators to suspend or restrict internet services.
“By routing its signals and data directly to low-Earth orbit, Starlink entirely bypasses national gateways and landing stations, leaving the regime blind and unable to enforce a localized digital blackout or control the flow of information during the next inevitable street crisis,” Ekinneh wrote in the June 25 edition of The Horizon newspaper.
Ndi Eugene Ndi is an award-winning Cameroonian investigative journalist based in Yaounde. He is Editor-in-Chief of the local tabloid, NewsWatch.
This report was first published in NewsWatch newspaper No. 235 of Monday, July 27, 2027.
