Starlink Deploys Free Internet in 5 Colombian Departments After 7.4 Quake

3 articles · Updated · basenor.com · Aug 13

Starlink and Colombia’s UNGRD have activated satellite internet across hard-hit Chocó communities three days after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake knocked out power, cellular and fixed-line networks in western Colombia.
Free service runs through Sept. 12 for affected users in five departments—Chocó, Caldas, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda and Quindío—with automatic credits for active and canceled customers and free replacement of damaged hardware.
UNGRD confirmed antenna deployments on Aug. 12, enabled by a pre-existing emergency partnership under which SpaceX had donated 56 Starlink terminals after an earlier 2025 Colombian earthquake.
That pre-positioned hardware let Colombia restore communications faster than shipping equipment into a disaster zone, reinforcing Starlink’s pitch as a resilience layer for remote areas where terrestrial broadband was already sparse.