How Airtel’s Starlink service works, and what it cannot do yet

Kampala, Uganda – Ugandans hiking the Rwenzori Mountains, crossing Lake Victoria or on safari in Murchison Falls National Park may no longer lose all contact once their phones show “no service”.

On Thursday, Airtel Uganda, the country’s second-largest mobile operator, launched a service that connects smartphones directly to satellites operated by Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Starlink has sold dish-based broadband in Uganda since the start of this month. The new service is different. It needs no dish, router or special handset, because the satellites act as mobile masts in orbit and the phone connects to them as if they were a distant mast.

Soumendra Sahu, Airtel Uganda’s managing director, told journalists at the launch at the Kampala Marriott Hotel that the connection happens automatically once a phone leaves Airtel’s ground network.

“Once they are out of the terrestrial network, they will be latched to the satellite network,” Sahu said.

Customers have to sign up first. According to Sahu, they need to install the MyAirtel app, tap the Airtel Starlink icon to opt in, and switch on data roaming in their phone settings. David Birungi, Airtel Uganda’s head of public relations and corporate communications, said customers should do this before they travel, because the satellite link works like a roaming network.

The first 30 days are free. After that, Sahu said, customers will need a data bundle of at least 2,000 Ugandan shillings. Birungi said joining costs nothing and customers do not need a new SIM card.

For now, the service is limited to what Airtel calls “light internet”. Sahu said users can send WhatsApp text messages, receive SMS, use the MyAirtel app and open Google Maps.

Because SMS works, users can also receive the one-time passcodes needed to approve mobile money payments. “I want to do an Airtel Money transaction on the top of Rwenzori Mountain. I can open the MyAirtel app and do the transaction,” Sahu said.

The service cannot yet carry voice calls or video. Birungi said users will be able to chat in WhatsApp groups but cannot make calls.

Justine Kasule Lumumba, Uganda’s minister of ICT and national guidance, told the launch that calls would come later. She did not give a timeline.

The service also does not fix a weak signal. Birungi said a phone that shows even one bar of Airtel network, however unreliable, will stay on the ground network and will not switch to the satellite. The satellite connection starts only when the phone shows “no service” or “emergency calls only”.

“Wherever there is a terrestrial network, the priority will be latched to terrestrial,” Sahu said. For that reason, people in Kampala and other covered areas will see little difference.

Birungi also said the service works only on phones. MiFi devices and home routers will not connect, even when carried into a national park.

Only smartphones can use it, and that rules out most of Airtel’s customers for now. In August, Airtel reported 19.7 million customers and said smartphone penetration had reached 46.6 percent.

It is not yet clear which smartphones qualify in Uganda. When Airtel launched the same service in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it worked only on compatible LTE Android phones, and Apple support was promised later.

Asked how much of Uganda the service reaches, Sahu said it covers the entire country. That claim has not been independently verified. Uganda’s regulator said it will track performance through reports that Airtel must file every two weeks.

Nyombi Thembo, executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), said the regulator wanted to “learn together” with Airtel and would monitor quality, reliability and consumer protection.

He said Airtel first sought approval in November last year but was held back because Starlink had no Ugandan licence. “There was no way an unlicensed operator would carry a licensed operator,” he said. A pilot in Murchison Falls National Park followed, starting on 21 July.

Nyombi Thembo said the service was approved only after it met the regulator’s requirements on lawful interception, consumer protection, non-interference and competition. Lawful interception allows security agencies to monitor communications.

Both speakers stressed that the service does not replace mobile masts. Mobile operators in Uganda are required to cover at least 90 percent of the country’s land area. Nyombi Thembo said that obligation is technology-neutral, so satellites can count towards it.

“Who will put a tower on the top of the Rwenzori mountain?” Sahu asked. He dismissed concerns that the service could eat into Airtel’s revenue from its ground network, saying it “will never replace the terrestrial network”.

Birungi said Airtel would keep building masts as towns grow and households add security cameras and smart TVs that need faster connections.

Kasule Lumumba said the service could help Uganda’s tourism industry and communities on lakes and mountains, including the Sigulu islands in Lake Victoria, where she comes from.

According to the minister, Uganda is the second African country to get the service after DR Congo, where it launched on 14 August.

The launch comes months after connectivity in Uganda was sharply restricted. On 13 January, two days before the general election, the UCC ordered operators to suspend public internet access. The directive also covered satellite internet services.

Starlink signed a five-year operating licence in May, in a ceremony witnessed by President Yoweri Museveni.

Businesses that need full broadband will still need Starlink’s dish service, which Airtel also resells. It is expensive for most households: reports put the entry cost at about 2.3 million shillings, with a monthly 100Mbps package at 203,704 shillings.

The Ugandan rollout is part of a December 2025 agreement between Airtel Africa and SpaceX to bring the service to all 14 of Airtel Africa’s markets by the end of 2026.