Beirut, Lebanon (Enmaeya News) — The Lebanese Council of Ministers has officially licensed Starlink, a private-sector company, to offer nationwide satellite internet, paving the way for enhanced high-speed connectivity.
The decision also signals a regulatory environment open to private-sector innovation, reducing bureaucratic barriers and creating favorable conditions for technology providers like Starlink to operate and expand.
The question now is: what draws Starlink to the Lebanese market? There are three main factors driving the tech giant’s interest.
First, Lebanon suffers from slow, unreliable internet, creating strong demand for faster, more dependable service. Second, Starlink can deploy its satellites to provide coverage across the country, enabling indirect oversight from space.
Third, Lebanon’s strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean gives the network potential geopolitical significance, while also positioning the country as a potential regional hub for expansion into the Levant and broader MENA region.
Lebanese consumers and businesses represent strong potential demand. Remote workers, students, and tech-savvy users increasingly require reliable internet for professional tasks, online learning, streaming, and communication.
Businesses may adopt Starlink for cloud-based operations, e-commerce, and international communications, while institutions rely on high-speed connectivity for essential services.
In addition, the tourism and hospitality sector could benefit, as hotels, resorts, and remote tourist destinations often struggle to provide reliable internet, and satellite connectivity could meet the expectations of international visitors.
Starlink, operated by SpaceX and founded by Elon Musk, relies on roughly 7,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites that provide low-latency, high-speed internet, outperforming traditional satellite solutions. While the service primarily targets rural and remote areas, as well as maritime and aerial navigation, its role has expanded in recent years to include military applications.
Although urban markets are not its current focus, Starlink’s trajectory suggests that city coverage could become a future goal.
Lebanon presents a particularly promising market. Despite being the first Arab country to introduce internet in the 1990s, the nation lagged in DSL adoption and later struggled to implement fiber-optic upgrades. By 2020, 65% of the national fiber-optic project remained incomplete due to economic crises and equipment shortages.
Lebanon’s mountainous terrain, which makes fiber deployment costly and slow, gives Starlink an advantage, allowing satellite technology to bypass geographic obstacles and provide high-speed coverage even in remote or elevated regions.
As a result, most Lebanese rely on outdated ADSL or VDSL connections, with speeds far below global averages. Lebanon ranked 142nd worldwide for fixed internet speeds in 2025, and only one-third of poor households have internet access, compared with 68% of non-poor households. According to economic journalist Viviane Akiki, this gap in service has created strong demand for alternatives, positioning Starlink to bypass the limitations of local infrastructure.
Lebanon’s roughly 5.34 million internet users include an estimated 1.4 million residential, municipal, and commercial subscribers who could potentially switch to satellite internet. Experts estimate Starlink could capture up to 25% of the local market, around 350,000 subscribers, equivalent to 5.6% of its global customer base.
Each satellite can support tens of thousands of buildings, meaning that covering Lebanon’s anticipated subscriber base would require only a handful of satellites. While not designed for surveillance, the data they generate could be analyzed to monitor network activity.
Relying on Starlink also shifts Lebanon’s digital traffic outside national networks, reducing state control over data flow and potentially complicating cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and regulatory oversight.
Satellite internet can help bridge connectivity gaps but also introduces new vulnerabilities in a country already struggling with economic and infrastructure challenges.
In short, Starlink’s Lebanese launch combines business opportunity, technological reach, and strategic influence, highlighting both the potential benefits and risks of relying on private satellite networks in a geopolitically sensitive region.
