Samoa Observer | Legal Starlink users remain online

There is good news for legal Starlink users as the Office of the Regulator has announced that they will continue to have access to their services, as confirmed by SpaceX and will not be affected by the temporary cut-off scheduled for 21 August.

In a notice from the OOTR, it said those in Samoa who are using Starlink units without proper registration, type approval, and spectrum licensing and have not submitted their serial numbers to SpaceX will face disconnection on 22 August 2024.

This announcement was made by the Regulator, Lematua Gisa Fuatai-Purcell in a notice distributed to the media on Tuesday afternoon.

As reported earlier, Starlink users in Samoa were informed of the temporary service interruptions last week while regulatory approvals were pending.

Since April, users have paid regulatory fees totaling $1,150 + GST for licensing and $3,000 + GST annually for business spectrum use.

Lematua in an interview with this newspaper last week stated that while Starlink’s regulatory approval process is close to completion, the final approval depends on additional clarifications from SpaceX.

Currently, Starlink units in Samoa are operating under a temporary "Mobile-Regional" plan, as SpaceX lacks a commercial license in the country.

On Tuesday, this newspaper contacted Regulator Lematua to request figures on the number of legal and illegal Starlink users in Samoa. Lematua responded that she was out of the office and directed all inquiries to the Acting Regulator, Ms. Gasu Vanessa Tanuvasa.

In an email to customers in Samoa last week, Starlink said its goal was to provide reliable high-speed, low-latency internet to people all around the world, especially for those in rural and remote areas where internet connectivity has not been available, unreliable or too expensive.

“To do so, we’re working as quickly as possible to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals from local governments globally to be allowed to offer Starlink services in as many places as possible,” said the company.

“As outlined in our Terms of Service, the availability of our Mobile Service Plans is contingent upon various factors, including regulatory approvals. The “Mobile – Regional” plans are intended for temporary travel and transit, not for permanent use in a location.

“If you have been using a "Mobile - Regional" plan for more than two months outside of the country in which you ordered Starlink, you must either see Support FAQs to change your account country or return to the country in which your service was ordered. Otherwise, starting 21 August 2024, you will be unable to connect to the internet except to access your Starlink account where you can make updates to your account.”