Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as one of the strongest storms on record, leaving widespread destruction, including power losses, cut fibre and mobile outages, and severe damage to roads and buildings. Satellite communications provider, Starlink, was ready, willing and able to provide connectivity. This article explores the competition and market-share implications for Caribbean telcos when more resilient service offerings are available.
When a Category-5 hurricane flattens power and telecoms routes across an island, the telecoms question moves from “which provider is fastest?” to “what actually works?” Hurricane Melissa’s catastrophic strike on Jamaica in late October 2025 has been exactly that kind of inflexion point. In the immediate aftermath, Starlink — and satellite solutions more broadly — stepped into the roles fixed and mobile/cellular networks could no longer fulfil, thus accelerating its adoption and forcing incumbent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to reckon with a new competitor whose strengths and weaknesses are unlike traditional operators.
Cognisant that the Caribbean region is subject to natural disasters, especially tropical storms and hurricanes, and consequently, the widespread destruction that can be experienced, including the prolonged loss of telecoms and internet service, access to alternative forms of connectivity has become increasingly critical. Though Starlink, for example, was initially being positioned to serve as a backup when the terrestrial ISPs failed, the Jamaica experience to date suggests that position could be limiting. This article examines the competition and market-share implications for Caribbean ISPs, which were already feeling threatened by satellite communications providers, and highlights the potential and longer term implications based on the impact of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.
Starlink in the Caribbean
As outlined in our article, How much of a threat is Starlink to Caribbean telecoms markets?, Starlink is a satellite-based broadband internet service developed by SpaceX. It is part of a new generation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to users virtually anywhere on the planet — including rural, remote, or disaster-affected areas where terrestrial broadband (like fibre, DSL, or mobile networks) is limited or unreliable.
Since 2023, Starlink has been progressively expanding its coverage across the Caribbean. The service is now officially available in most Caribbean territories, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Deployment accelerated after Hurricane Melissa (2025), when the system proved valuable for restoring connectivity quickly in affected areas.
At the time of writing, Starlink has been the most visible satellite communications service in the Caribbean. Though others exist globally, such as OneWeb, Amazon Project Kuiper and Viasat, they either have a very limited or no presence in the region.
The immediate Starlink response
Albeit small, before Hurricane Melissa, Starlink had a footprint in Jamaica and was being used in three main ways. First, remote schools or communities that could not secure internet connectivity through existing ISPs were using the service. Second, Starlink terminals were being placed in vehicles for those who needed reliable service when on the road, and finally, individuals who could afford to have the service as a backup, in addition to the internet plan they had secured from Digicel or Flow.
Though limited information has been made publicly available, the major telecoms carriers in Jamaica suffered considerable damage due to Hurricane Melissa. According to reports published days after the storm, only 40% of Flow’s network was active, “with mobile connectivity at 22 per cent and about 100,000 customers accessing emergency service” whilst only 31% of Digicel users were online “with 24 per cent of its sites operating on generators” (source: The Star).
However, within days of Hurricane Melissa, Starlink units were being used in Jamaica to restore connectivity for emergency coordination, ATMs, community Wi-Fi points and critical government services. Liberty Caribbean announced cooperation with Starlink (including direct-to-cell capabilities) to provide emergency connectivity (Source: Barbados Today), while Jamaica’s Universal Service Fund and government agencies moved to deploy Starlink terminals to bring back internet in key communities (Source: IRIE FM and The Gleaner).
Why Starlink matters to market share in the Caribbean
Existing Caribbean mobile broadband operators and fixed broadband providers have built their customer bases on last-mile access, such as through Digital Subscriber Line, coaxial cable, fibre, or 4G LTE/5G, plus bundled services and local customer relationships. Starlink changes several of the competitive assumptions:
First, Starlink facilitates fast emergency substitution, which has been evident in Jamaica. Where fibre or mobile masts are down, a Starlink terminal plus a power source can restore broadband connectivity in hours or days rather than weeks or months. As a result, the incumbents’ immediate value proposition as the sole resilient option is reduced.
Second, in remote or rural parishes where access to telecoms service is weak or inconsistent, Starlink often delivers markedly better connectivity and performance than legacy options — making it attractive beyond emergency use. A recent article published by Ookla noted that Starlink provided improved service consistency and reliability in Caribbean countries where service performance was less than ideal.
Third, Starlink’s direct satellite model sidesteps local last-mile investments; while hardware and subscription costs remain significant, many users (businesses, NGOs, governments, high-value residential customers) will pay a premium for resilience and performance. These new pricing and acquisition models can nibble at the high-ARPU (average revenue per user) segments incumbents rely on, but who in turn expect consistent and reliable service and are prepared to pay for it.
Taken together, the above points suggest two likely short-to-medium term effects on incumbent ISPs:
- Localised churn and displacement, especially in rural and disaster-affected zones where Starlink provides better service or faster restoration; and
- Pressure on high-value and enterprise segments to adopt Starlink as primary or backup connectivity, reducing revenue that once flowed to local operators.
On the other hand, two key factors that could lessen market-share loss are:
- Starlink service cost and affordability. The initial outlay for Starlink’s hardware and the monthly fees are higher than many mass consumer offers. Widespread substitution for low-income households is unlikely unless prices fall or subsidy models are established.
- Regulatory and commercial responses to the perceived threat. Incumbents can (and are) partnering with satellite providers (as Liberty Caribbean and others did), offering hybrid products, subsidising resilient backup, or lobbying for regulatory measures that shape how global satellite operators enter domestic markets. Such measures can lessen the prospect of a sudden or dramatic loss in market share.
The Melissa effect: Acceleration, not necessarily a full takeover
Hurricane Melissa created the ideal conditions to showcase Starlink’s value: terrestrial networks broken, an instant need for coordination and commerce, and visibility for governments and businesses on alternatives. These conditions in Jamaica have accelerated emergency procurement and public-sector deployments, thus demonstrating the real-life and real-world value of satellite communications services.
However, acceleration is not the same as wholesale market seizure. For mass consumer markets and urban fibre customers, incumbents still hold strong advantages in cost, established service bundles, and local customer support. The real risk to incumbents is the gradual erosion in specific segments—rural, high-value customers, enterprise, tourism (hotels, resorts), and emergency services—and reputational loss, if customers perceive telcos as unreliable, especially in crises.
In markets where fibre is dominant and resilient, Starlink is unlikely to take a large permanent share because fixed fibre still outperforms in cost per Mbps and capacity for dense urban customers. In contrast, countries, such as Jamaica, where the infrastructure has experienced considerable damage resulting in limited or unreliable service, Starlink could become the preferred option for both consumers and businesses — especially if the operators take months or even years to rebuild their networks.
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