Starlink base station adjacent to the famous IColo 1 carrier neutral data center in Mombasa, Kenya.

It is not a coincidence. Starlink needs terrestrial connectivity just like any other ISP. Mombasa is the single most important East African coast subsea hub with Djibouti in second place. Notice that Starlink placed its transmitter dishes on platforms to achieve the 20 degree from horizon visibility required for their network.

Photo of the Starlink satellite facility adjacent to IColo 1 data center in Mombasa, Kenya



Comments

  1. Don ThompsonSeptember 16, 2026 at 5:47 PM

    Interesting that they've deployed 30 antenna at Mombassa, the UK/Europe sites I've logged comprise only 3x3 radomes. Noting also that Starlink seem less interested in the horizon view at the Ballinspittle, Ireland, site - located right beside a couple of large steel agricultural sheds but at least there is a ocean cable landing nearby.

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    1. Roderick S. BeckSeptember 16, 2026 at 7:59 PM

      Mombasa is East Africa's most important subsea cable hub. So I would place as many Starlink transmission units there because the back haul cost is less. Think of the cost of putting an earth station in a rural area. The fibre costs are enormous. Starlink typically configures its base stations to have 1.6 Tbps of lit backhaul capacity to the data center. All these earth station are moving data to data centers located in major cities.

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