News

SpaceX Pitches “Global Roaming” Internet To Starlink Waitlist

The company is offering the $200 per month plan to potential users in countries where Starlink’s service isn’t yet available.

Published

4 years ago

February 20, 2023

Nour Nasir

spacex pitches global roaming internet to starlink waitlist

Although Starlink’s constellation of small satellites is growing fast, regulatory approval is patchy in several large markets, including the Middle East and North Africa region. Reports are now emerging that SpaceX is readying a global roaming service to remedy the issue.

The company recently emailed people on the Starlink waitlist inviting them to try a new $200 per month package offering internet access “from almost anywhere on land in the world”.

NEWS: Starlink is testing a new "Global Roaming Service" for $200/mo, plus the standard $599 for Hardware. Will they offer this as an add-on for $65/mo like portability? @RealTeslaNorth @MarcusTuck3 https://t.co/c2vQhtOUL8 pic.twitter.com/kiLMsMkhDY

— Nathan Owens (@VirtuallyNathan) February 17, 2023

Potential customers will need a Starlink terminal to access the service, which may incur an import fee on top of the device’s $599 price, leading many to question the advantage over the existing $25 Portability Package offered to residential users.

Also Read: Dubai Launches World’s Largest Solar-Powered Data Center

The answer seems to be found in SpaceX’s terms of service, which requires those who spend “an extended period of time” away from home to change their permanent address, with the $25 Portability Package intended as a strictly temporary plan for vacations and business trips.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.