Starlink, a welcome game-changer for Africa

Why Internet Is Crucial at Onja

Onja is a social enterprise training underprivileged youth into world-class software developers. We find the brightest students in Madagascar who can’t afford to continue their education, and train them in English language and software development. After just two-and-a-half years they are ready to work as remote front-end software developers in international tech teams. Once in a job, our developers earn a good salary that helps them support their families and pay forward the opportunity to a new wave of students. They unlock exciting careers that fulfil their potential, and accelerate the development of their nation. Reliable internet is essential to our operations. Our developers work from our co-working space in Madagascar, for companies mostly in Europe. So naturally they are on video calls with their colleagues in Europe almost every day.

Poor internet quality can severely impact their work, causing frustration, delays and affecting their productivity. Micro cuts (and more severe cuts) hamper communication on calls. High speeds are nice to have, but stability is the key to seamless calls and uninterrupted work. So we have historically worked hard to optimise for stability.

While internet connectivity in Madagascar is better than in many other African countries, it still comes with its challenges. Read on to hear about how we improved our connection in 2024!

Our Previous internet set up

For the past few years we have relied on one or two fibre connections and a myriad of 4G backup connections.

We are very fortunate to have fibre in Madagascar, however the fiber connection was not as one would expect in much of the developed world. Speed are limited, cuts for multiple hours are not uncommon, and although the connection is fairly stable, micro cuts do occur. During this time, we maintained 14 backup 4G connections, each back connection consisting of a 4G (LTE) satellite receiver positioned in a high location with a sim card installed preloaded with data Ethernet cabling to an access point or cable All this was to support 18 developers!

With the fiber connections, and large number of back ups, we were able to maintain acceptable connections, and our developers were able to work well in their teams.

However each back up connection cost money, and constant monitoring of data levels, so you can imagine our costs were high

Step in Starlink

What is starlink?Starlink is an innovative new internet connectivity option. Rather than rely on physical cables, Starlink uses a network of satellites to enable internet connection around the world without the need for localised infrastructure.

Madagascar became eligible for Starlink in mid 2024, so we signed up as soon as we could and were excited to get connected as soon as possible!

Since transitioning to two Starlink connections, we've seen remarkable improvements. We have stopped using our inferior fiber connections altogether and what's more, reliance on backup connections has all but vanished; though we continue to maintain them for contingency purposes.

Since connecting starlink, our internet reliability has improved to the point where connectivity problems have become almost non-existent. We have also reduced our monthly internet expenses by about 50%.

In addition, while we look to expand to another location in Africa, we no longer need to be so concerned with internet speeds (which previously would have been one of the most limiting factors), opening up many other possibilities for our model.

In conclusion, Starlink has been a game-changer for Onja, providing the stability and scalability we needed to support our growing operations.

Access: Closing the digital divide:

Starlink is unprecedented when it comes to connectivity. It levels the playing field for remote tech focused jobs particularly, allowing for Onja’s students to learn, our developers to work, and the organisation to function with reliable internet. To learn more about our work, or to enquire about hiring one of our developers, head to onja.org.