Starlink, just a few days before Christmas, has managed to launch in its 70th country: Paraguay. 🇵🇾
The launch in the South American country (likely) caps off an eventful 2023 in which Starlink continued to expand its global footprint.
In total, Starlink managed to launch in 25 new countries, including recent launches in Eswatini, the Maldives, Benin, Georgia, Zambia, and more.
A particular focus was being placed on Africa and Central America. The former, for example, now boasts 10 active markets and 8 licensed countries.
As for Latin America, Starlink is now available in almost all of the continent, leaving ‘only’ Argentina (Q2 2024), Bolivia (starting sometime in 2024), Guyana (2024), Suriname (2025), Uruguay (Q3 2024), and Venezuela (no estimated date) to be whitelisted.
That said, the launch and subsequent adoption in Guyana may be accelerated if Venezuelan aggressions intensify (similar to Starlink in Ukraine).
2023 also underlined Starlink’s staying power, even in light of new market entrants such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
As of today, Starlink has a 2.3 million-strong membership base (not to be confused with annual subscribers).
Apart from market expansion, Starlink also whitelisted (i.e., made Residential service available) the entire United States, introduced hardware renting to Canadians and Americans, and unveiled a new antenna and router.
That said, Starlink still has a lot of room to grow on market expansion alone:
Coming back to the news at hand: the Residential plan, Starlink’s most popular plan, is priced at PYG 380,000 per month (~ USD 52).
The hardware will cost another PYG 1,950,000 (~ USD 265), plus PYG 163,790 for shipment and handling. Hardware is currently discounted by 50% until January 9th, 2024.
Feel free to check out all the different prices that Starlink charges by visiting our global price list.
Roughly two months ago, Paraguay’s president Santiago Peña officially welcomed Starlink after it was approved by the country’s telco regulator.
With a steadily growing population, thanks in large parts due to immigration from wealthier expats, Paraguay is posed to become a somewhat attractive market for Starlink.