Regulator dismisses Starlink appeal

Namibia's ‌communications regulator said it has dismissed an appeal by Starlink against ‌the rejection of its ⁠licence applications, reaffirming that Elon Musk's satellite ⁠Internet provider failed to meet local ownership requirements, reports News24. The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran) rejected Starlink's applications ‌for a telecommunications service licence and radio spectrum access in March, citing non-compliance with ownership and ‌control requirements under the country's Communications Act. The regulator added that Starlink's reconsideration application was filed after the statutory deadline, which expired on 23 April. Cran received 624 reconsideration requests from the public, 622 of which were dismissed for failing to meet procedural ⁠and jurisdictional requirements. The two submissions that met the threshold introduced no new facts and identified no material ⁠error in the original decision, the regulator said. ‘Cran affirms that the reconsideration of requests did not provide a sufficient ⁠legal or factual basis to alter ‌the original decision,’ ‌it added.