Vodacom’s Starlink Deal Signals a New Era for Africa’s Internet. Tanzania Risks Being Left Behind.
Tanzania risks falling behind as the rest of Africa accelerates into a new era of satellite-powered internet. Vodacom’s partnership with Starlink is set to expand high-speed broadband across the continent, yet Tanzania remains offline due to unresolved regulatory hurdles. While Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda already benefit from satellite internet, Tanzania’s licensing delays threaten to widen the country’s digital divide and weaken its competitiveness in tourism, education and rural development.
Vodacom Group has signed a continent-wide agreement with Starlink to expand high-speed, low-latency internet across Africa using satellite technology. The announcement has sparked renewed debate in Tanzania, a country where Starlink has tried and failed to secure regulatory clearance for over a year.
The rest of the continent is moving. Tanzania is still stuck in paperwork.
The deal will allow Vodacom to integrate Starlink’s low-earth-orbit satellites into its network, resell Starlink hardware to African businesses and SMEs, and support connectivity for sectors like mining, agriculture, oil and gas, education and tourism. For countries struggling with poor infrastructure or difficult terrain, it is a major shift.
Tanzania fits that description more than most.
Where Africa is going
Vodacom sees satellite internet as the missing piece in solving rural connectivity gaps. In countries like South Africa, Mozambique and DRC, the company will soon combine its existing towers with Starlink backhaul to offer fast broadband in places where fibre and traditional mobile networks have struggled.
African operators are turning to satellite technology because the continent still has deep blind spots. As of 2024, only 28 percent of Africans had mobile internet access. Building fibre to every region is slow, expensive and often impossible.
Satellite is the shortcut.
Even Vodacom’s parent company, Vodafone, has already partnered with Amazon’s Project Kuiper to boost 4G and 5G coverage in Europe and Africa. The trend is clear. The future of African connectivity is hybrid: towers plus fibre plus satellites.
What this means for Tanzania
For Tanzania, the timing is awkward. Starlink submitted its licensing applications to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in late 2024 after months of negotiations. Nothing materialised.
Instead, Starlink faced a long list of compliance issues, landing-rights negotiations, local data rules, and spectrum-regulation concerns. By mid-2025, TCRA released new guidelines that tightened, rather than simplified, the route for satellite operators to operate legally.
The outcome: Kenya has Starlink. Uganda has Starlink. Rwanda has Starlink. Zambia has Starlink.
Tanzania does not.
Tanzania’s geography makes broadband expansion notoriously difficult. Regions like Katavi, Kigoma, Manyara, Rukwa and large parts of Tabora still lack reliable internet access. Tourism hotspots such as Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Mahale rely on inconsistent mobile networks that collapse during peak seasons. Remote schools, health centres and border communities face huge connectivity barriers.
A satellite-supported model could fix much of this overnight. That is what Vodacom wants to prove across the continent.
The opportunity Tanzania is missing
Tanzania has three major pain points:
• Remote terrain that makes fibre deployment expensive and slow.
• Congested mobile networks in urban centres like Arusha, Mwanza and Dar es Salaam.
• Massive digital-service demand from sectors like tourism, logistics, agriculture and e-commerce.
Satellite internet solves these issues by bypassing physical infrastructure entirely.
Imagine a lodge in Serengeti finally offering stable video conferencing to international tour operators.
Imagine a school in Longido accessing online lessons without relying on a weak EDGE signal.
Imagine a maize cooperative in Njombe using digital platforms to check global prices and manage supply chains.
Imagine a hospital in Mpanda running telemedicine without interruptions.
These services already exist. Tanzania simply cannot use them.
Why the Vodacom–Starlink deal should wake Tanzania up
Vodacom’s agreement shows where the industry is heading. The company is betting on satellite technology as part of its Vision 2030 plan to reach 260 million customers and 120 million financial-services users. Satellite is not a luxury. It is infrastructure.
If Tanzania maintains its current regulatory stance, the country risks becoming a regional dead zone in the coming digital boom. Investment will move to markets with more adaptable policies. Cross-border trade will lean toward countries with better connectivity. Tourism will reward Kenya and Rwanda, where camps already advertise Starlink Wi-Fi as a standard feature.
The question for Tanzania is simple:
Will the country adjust, or will the gap widen?
What must change
If Tanzania is to benefit from satellite-internet integration, the path is straightforward:
• TCRA must operationalize its satellite-landing-rights guidelines with clarity and predictability.
• Regulators must separate national-security concerns from bureaucratic slowdowns.
• Local operators like Vodacom Tanzania, Airtel and Tigo need the freedom to partner with satellite providers and resell equipment.
• Import duties on satellite devices must be reviewed to make the service affordable to schools, clinics and SMEs.
• The government must recognize satellite internet as part of national infrastructure, not a foreign luxury.
This is not about Starlink alone. It is about the digital future of Tanzania.
The bigger picture
Africa is accelerating toward a blended connectivity model. Fibre will serve the cities, mobile will cover the towns and satellite will reach everywhere else. Countries that embrace this shift will unlock new industries, new jobs and new digital services.
Vodacom’s partnership with Starlink is a sign of where the continent is going. Tanzania now has a choice: fix its regulatory bottlenecks or watch neighbours leapfrog ahead.
In the next few years, connectivity will define competitiveness in tourism, agriculture, logistics and education.
If Tanzania wants to compete, it cannot afford to stay offline.