News

Elon Musk’s Starlink Offers Global Roaming Satellite Internet

The $200 per month service covers either same-country or overseas roaming.

Published

4 years ago

March 21, 2023

Nour Nasir

Starlink

Starlink Roam — a rebranded version of the travel-oriented Starlink for RVs — enables users to get online from anywhere where the service is available for a $200 monthly fee.

SpaceX describes the new service as “unlimited high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis anywhere in the world”, though makes it clear that customers will need to fork out $599 for the portable Flat High-Performance Terminal required to connect to the service or $2,500 for a non-portable option. The $200 monthly fee allows users to connect from anywhere in their home country or when roaming abroad.

Also Read: BlackBerry Movie Tells The Story Of The Famous Keyboard Phone

Although global roaming has technically been available to US users for some time, the unveiling of Starlink Roam will add additional regions (including the Middle East) to the revamped service.

Since first being made available worldwide, Starlink now boasts over 1 million subscribers. As SpaceX continues to add more satellites to expand coverage, the service’s user base and reach are expected to expand even further.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.