This is a very brief OpenFalklands post—probably the shortest I’ve ever published!
My last two posts covered the extraordinary week regarding Starlink usage in the Falkland Islands, culminating on Friday with the concerning news that Starlink was discontinuing service to users on the islands. It’s now Monday 10th of February 2025.
I highly recommend reading those previous posts to understand the background of this issue fully:
February 2025 Falkland Islands Starlink status – what a few days it’s been!
February 2025: Starlink in the Falkland Islands – a National Emergency situation?
In fact, probably due to its somewhat “click-baity” title, the latter attracted over 15,000 unique page views worldwide – my largest audience yet for what are typically quite technical Falkland Islands telecommunications posts.
Monday morning brought good news.
It started to be reported early on Monday morning that many Starlink accounts that had been discontinued had spontaneously popped back into life.
I hope I’m not too presumptive, as it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact number of reactivated users for obvious reasons. However, it seems to include both those with the £5,400 FIG VSAT licence (as discussed in my previous posts) and ‘illegal’ consumer users – which is precisely what I had hoped to see.
Thank you Starlink!
I want to extend my thanks to everyone involved, including Falkland Islands Starlink users, the Falkland Islands Government, the Communications Regulator, MLAs, Starlink Petition Group and Cambridge Management Consultants whose efforts I’m sure contributed to Starlink’s change of stance.
Looking ahead, we can now anticipate the resolution of this situation with official government support for Starlink in April 2025. The Executive Council (EXCO) expects to receive a report shortly, which will outline the recommended path forward for permitting Starlink to offer legal service in the Falklands.
Of course, the most significant uncertainty remains how Sure Falkland Islands will respond to these recommendations, as adopting Starlink breaks the Exclusive Communications Licence held by them. However, all parties have expressed willingness to “work together” to find a prompt solution.
Rest assured, OpenFalklands will continue to provide updates on the progress as it unfolds.
Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/news
Confusion on the Falkland Islands Over Status of Starlink’s Broadband – ISPreview UK
“Good news, SpaceX’s global Starlink broadband network is currently listed as finally coming to the poorly served Falkland Islands, which is a British Overseas Territory, sometime in 2025. Bad news, the service is already being used by hundreds of local customers and the company has just started to cut them off.”
Chris Gare, OpenFalklands February 2025, copyright OpenFalklands
Interesting Chris,thanks for the update.