Paraguay Lets Starlink Exceed the UN’s Satellite Power Limits

Telecoms

The Starlink Paraguay news reads like a routine story about rural schools. What the regulator agreed to is bigger, because it changed the rules that govern every satellite above the country.

SpaceX described it as a historic decision with generational impact. The company was not being modest, and it was not talking about schools.

What Conatel granted Starlink Paraguay

The national telecoms commission, known as Conatel, approved the new terms on Tuesday. Its president, Juan Carlos Duarte, said Starlink asked for two things: new frequency bands, and permission to raise its power.

The bands are E and W. These very high frequencies link satellites to ground stations, not to the dish on a roof.

Duarte said they would let the company connect ground stations to data centres. That is the plumbing behind a bigger network.

SpaceX’s vice-president for satellite policy, David Goldman, put the payoff at eight times the capacity and speeds reaching a gigabit a second. He added something bigger.

Paraguay’s ministry and regulator, he said, are among the first in the region to let Starlink run above the power limits set by the UN’s telecoms agency.

Why an international power ceiling exists at all

This is the part worth slowing down for. The best-known ceiling sits in Article 22 of the world radio rules, and it caps how much energy a low-orbiting fleet may beam down.

The agency explains on its own technical support site that the limits protect older satellites parked in high orbit. They shield those craft from noise made by the newer swarms below them.

Then comes the sentence that explains the whole industry. These hard caps let a fleet share frequencies without dealing one-on-one with every high-orbit network in the world.

The rules apply to a fleet as a whole, not to one satellite at a time. That matters because several craft can beam into the same patch of ground at once.

So the ceiling is not just a technical nuisance. It is the bargain that lets thousands of satellites fly without haggling with everyone else who owns a slice of sky.

Why Paraguay, and why now

Capacity, not coverage, is what limits satellite internet today. Each satellite can serve only so many customers over a given patch of ground.

The proof came this month in Kenya. Starlink stopped taking new customers in seven counties because the network had filled up.

Users there had tripled in nine months. The answer was a waiting list.

Paraguay has about twenty thousand users. Its scattered rural people are ones fibre will never reach at a sane cost.

Eight times the capacity is the gap between a niche product and a national network. That is the prize on offer.

Paraguay’s state phone company, meanwhile, has had outages that knocked internet and phones offline across several regions. The rival arriving from orbit is not facing a strong incumbent.

The politics fit neatly. President Santiago Peña licensed Starlink in October 2023, weeks into his term.

In June he handed out sixteen hundred kits. They are meant to link more than fifty thousand students and teachers.

What a foreign investor should notice

Each kit must serve about thirty-one people. That tells you the scheme is about classrooms, not homes, and the real business lies in Duarte’s remark about data centres.

Gateway bands and ground stations are the plumbing of a serious network, not a rural charity. Paraguay wants to be the place where that plumbing lands first.

The country already has form here. A Japanese-funded space centre is going up outside the capital, and a Paraguayan-built nanosatellite is due to launch from California in October.

There is a wider fight behind all this. Should those power limits be eased? That is exactly what the world’s radio conference will argue about when it meets in Shanghai in 2027.

Paraguay did not wait for that debate. A country of six million has handed one American fleet a precedent it will carry into that room.

What changed for Starlink Paraguay?

Conatel granted new frequency bands and higher power. SpaceX says that multiplies capacity eight times and allows speeds up to a gigabit a second.

Are the ITU power limits binding?

They are treaty rules that shield high-orbit satellites from noise. They let fleets share spectrum without dealing with every operator on earth.

How many users does Starlink have there?

About twenty thousand, in a country of roughly six million. The company has held a Paraguayan licence since October 2023 and launched commercially that December.

More: Paraguay news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

What specific technical changes did Paraguay's regulator approve for Starlink?

Conatel approved two changes. Starlink gets new frequency bands called E and W, which link satellites to ground stations. It also may raise its power above limits set by the UN's telecoms agency. The bands serve data centres rather than rooftop dishes.

How significant is Paraguay's approval compared to other countries in the region?

SpaceX says Paraguay is among the first in the region to let Starlink run above the power limits set by the UN's telecoms agency. It called the decision historic.

What performance improvements does SpaceX claim the new conditions will deliver?

SpaceX says the new terms unlock eight times more capacity and speeds up to 1 Gbps. Starlink has roughly 20,000 users in Paraguay and has been licensed there since October 2023.