Argentina authorizes Starlink, rival Amazon Kuiper

Argentina on Monday gave authorization for the deployment of Starlink, the satellite internet service of Elon Musk — a fan of the South American country’s self-styled new “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milei.

In a decision published in the government gazette, Argentina’s Enacom communications authority authorized Starlink but also its new competitor from Amazon, Project Kuiper, which is due to launch this year, and the London-headquartered OneWeb.

“This means… greater freedom, greater investment and greater competition in everything related to the satellite internet market,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni told reporters in Buenos Aires.

Adorni said the move would bring internet connectivity to “companies and people for whom, for whatever reason, other technologies don’t allow” such access.

According to the Starlink website, its satellite internet service will be available in Argentina in the second quarter of 2024.

Musk had congratulated Milei on his election last November, saying on his social media platform X that “prosperity is ahead for Argentina.”

Milei, after a telephone conversation with the billionaire in December, said he had thanked Musk for “defending the ideas of freedom.”

An outsider elected on a wave of fury over the country’s economic decline, Milei has devalued the peso by over 50 percent, cut tens of thousands of public jobs and halved the number of government ministries since coming to office.

He has vowed to restore economic stability but has warned people that things will get worse before they get better. AFP