Elon Musk’s satellite internet provider, Starlink, experienced a rare global outage on Wednesday evening, disrupting connectivity for hundreds of thousands of users across multiple continents—including some in Botswana.
The outage, which began around 9:00 p.m. in Botswana and lasted for approximately two and a half hours, was attributed to a failure in Starlink’s core internal software systems. Downdetector, a real-time outage tracking platform, reported more than 60,000 user complaints, with most disruptions coming from the United States and Europe.
However, users in Africa, including remote communities in Botswana who rely on the satellite service, also reported downtime during the incident.
Starlink Vice President Michael Nicolls confirmed the outage on X (formerly Twitter), citing an internal configuration error that led to the loss of connectivity. “A configuration change caused our network to become unstable. We rolled back the change, and most services were restored within a couple of hours,” Nicolls wrote.
Elon Musk also addressed the matter, assuring users that the company is conducting a thorough investigation to prevent future occurrences.
The outage comes at a time when Starlink has been expanding aggressively across southern Africa, having recently launched in Lesotho. In Botswana, the company officially launched services in August 2024.
As service resumed later at night, most users reported stable connectivity by 11:30 p.m. Still, the outage has raised questions about the resilience of satellite-based internet services, particularly in regions where they serve as digital lifelines.