Spacecoin, a U.S space startup building a decentralized internet network, has secured regulatory approval from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to deliver satellite IoT monitoring services and expand connectivity in underconnected regions.
- •The approval gives Spacecoin formal entry into East Africa’s largest digital economy at a moment when satellite internet adoption has slowed after early growth.
- •Spacecoin’s Kenya pilot forms part of a wider rollout across Nigeria, Indonesia, and Cambodia, where the company is testing a decentralized satellite network that integrates blockchain-based transaction validation with satellite communications.
- •In Kenya, satellite internet connections remain diminutive compared to fixed wireless connections. Starlink, with under 20,000 subscriptions, faced a difficult 2025 as its share of the fixed internet market fell below 1%.
“These agreements confirm that Spacecoin has moved beyond being just an idea, but a real movement with momentum that will unlock permissionless connectivity through open-sourced satellite technology, powered by people and built for people,” Spacecoin founder Tae Oh said.
In Nigeria, Spacecoin is operating under an existing license from the Nigerian Communications Commission as it targets rural connectivity gaps in Africa’s largest telecom market.
In Indonesia, pilots are focused on improving coverage across the country’s island geography, while in Cambodia the company is partnering with local internet provider MekongNet to extend service to underserved areas.
Unlike established satellite providers like Starlink, which have prioritized consumer broadband connections, Spacecoin’s early deployments emphasize IoT monitoring and targeted connectivity. The pilots will determine whether alternative satellite architectures can scale without encountering the same bottlenecks that have constrained earlier entrants, as competition intensifies across Africa’s connectivity market.
Founded in 2022 by Tae Oh and spun out of his financial services firm Gluwa, Spacecoin is building a decentralized satellite internet network that runs on the Creditcoin blockchain. The company launched its first demonstration satellite, CTC-0, in December 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare, successfully transmitting a blockchain transaction as a proof-of-concept.
Billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink’s advantage lies in its large, vertically integrated satellite constellation, which allows it to offer broad coverage and scale quickly. Its in-orbit network and ground infrastructure give it the capacity to serve millions of customers, a reality smaller entrants cannot match.
Across Africa, Starlink has steadily gained regulatory approval from different countries but challenges persist in securing a license in the continent's largest economy, South Africa. Spacecoin is likely to avoid experimenting in countries with tight regulatory spaces as it has no advantage of scale.
Years ago, satellite internet was considered a niche preserve for remote regions where fibre connections would be costly and unreliable. Today, it is a point of contention between the great powers of the world. China and the U.S. are escalating a new space-based broadband rivalry as China seeks to deploy nearly 200,000 satellites, dwarfing SpaceX’s Starlink constellation of 49,000.
The Chinese filings with the International Telecommunications Union suggest multi-orbit, multi-frequency coverage, potentially for both commercial and strategic purposes. In response, U.S. regulators have accelerated Starlink approvals, adding 7,500 satellites to its second-generation network, while the service currently operates more than 9,400.
