In Bolivia, people are smuggling Starlink antennas, which are prohibited because the internet is unstable.
In Bolivia, located in the center of South America, satellite internet using Chinese-made satellites is the norm, but users are dissatisfied with the speed, and some are smuggling Starlink antennas, which the government has banned.
Bolivians smuggle Starlink to escape China-backed internet - Rest of World
Japan is a country blessed with an internet environment, with high-speed internet available over a wide area, but there are countries and regions in the world that do not even have a high-speed internet environment. One of these is Bolivia.
Bolivia is a country with a diverse natural environment, including the Andes Mountains, with their mountain ranges over 4,000m above sea level, and the tropical rainforests and savannas of the Amazon River basin. The country's population of 11 million people lives in remote areas, so the internet penetration rate is not very high. According to World Bank data, the internet coverage rate is finally reaching 59.9% of the population in 2020, and is expected to reach 73.3% in 2022.
World Development Indicators | DataBank
According to the news site Rest of World , Bolivia offers a satellite internet service using the Chinese-made satellite 'Tupac Katari 1,' which was launched in 2013 and began operating in 2014. However, the internet connection speed when using this service is 'the slowest in Latin America.'
Although the installation of optical fiber in urban areas has reduced the country's reliance on Tupac Katari 1, the Internet environment in remote areas remains unimproved. It was only natural that people had high hopes for Starlink, a satellite Internet service developed by SpaceX, but it was officially banned in Bolivia in August 2024 without ever being launched.
For this reason, it seems that distributors in neighboring Chile and Peru, where Starlink is legally available, are 'smuggling' Starlink antennas directly to Bolivian users.
'The speeds are incredible,' one user who got a Starlink antenna told Rest of World. 'Unlimited' means working, uploading and downloading without interruption. He also said that Starlink is better than the fiber optic service in the capital, La Paz.
The government explains that it is 'moving forward with more proactive and transparent regulations to eliminate administrative barriers,' but Mariela Valdivieso, an independent lawmaker who is promoting the introduction of Starlink, told Rest of World that 'high-speed internet is an essential foundation for the country's development and is a priority that cannot continue to be postponed.'
Valdivieso, who serves as chairman of the Science and Technology Committee in the Bolivian Congress, said he asked regulators for an explanation for the decision to ban Starlink in October 2024, but has yet to receive a response.
Ivan Zambrana of the Bolivian Space Agency, which is involved in the operation of 'Tupac Katari 1,' said that SpaceX and the Bolivian government had been negotiating with the U.S. Embassy, but the negotiations were suddenly terminated in 2023. SpaceX wanted to contract directly with users without partnering with or being overseen by the host government, and Zambrana said, 'I want them to enter legally so as not to adversely affect Bolivia's communications system. However, Elon Musk was very arrogant. I want him to be more cooperative.'
SpaceX did not comment on its negotiations with the Bolivian government.
Tupac Qatari 1 is set to operate for 15 years, meaning it will reach the end of its life in 2028. Zambrana said he hopes to extend its operation until 2030 and acknowledged that he has begun discussions with Amazon's Project Kuiper and Canada's Telesat as a communications service using low-earth orbit satellites.
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