By Samantha Simon
Talks are underway between the government and Starlink bosses over granting the high-speed internet provider a licence to operate in Antigua and Barbuda.
Negotiations remain ongoing despite hitting a snag over proposals for white labelling – when a company buys a product from another company and rebrands it as their own – which was rejected by Starlink.
The news was revealed at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing in response to a question posed by Observer.
Starlink is a project by SpaceX, spearheaded by Elon Musk, aimed at providing high-speed internet access to people worldwide.
It works by deploying a number of small satellites in low Earth orbit, which communicate with ground terminals to deliver internet connectivity, particularly in areas with limited or no traditional internet infrastructure.
Currently, the US-based provider boasts speeds of up to 500 Mbps for a fraction of the price offered by local competitors such as iNet, the only other telecoms provider offering such speeds to residential users.
Although customers can buy a satellite dish online and set up a subscription in Antigua and Barbuda, Starlink’s services are technically illegal here because the company does not have a licence to operate.
It emerged yesterday that government has been in talks with Starlink principals to bring the service to the country since March 2021, recognising that many vessels visiting the island such as during Sailing Week already use the service.
Minister of Information Melford Nicholas confirmed that talks with the company are ongoing.
“My ministry has been in touch with the principals of Starlink. We did facilitate, in the first instance, a permissive trial period here in Antigua, with certain utilised services in Barbuda when we were setting up the measurement systems for the geometric analysis of the lands in Barbuda with the Lands Registry Project,” he shared.
Minister Nicholas said alternatives to white labelling were now being discussed with Starlink.
“We are certainly engaging them right now to determine whether or not we could have some type of hybrid registration, regulatory position where we could grant them a particular type of licence that will cause them to not be in offence of our own economic space,” Minister Nicholas added.
The initial proposal was to have a local telecoms provider, such as ACT, to work together with Starlink, allowing them to act as a commercial front to the US company and provide their services to persons on island.
Starlink already has a sizeable presence in the Caribbean, with official availability in Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
