A second path that is not a cable
Satellite Internet & Starlink: Starlink and satellite connectivity surveyed, installed and integrated into your network as a genuine second path, for offices, remote sites and vessels.
This became a real option in the UAE only recently. On 28 August 2026, TDRA granted Starlink a ten-year General Space Services Licence to operate a public satellite communications network and provide broadband satellite internet here. TDRA states that the scope reaches beyond consumers to businesses and government entities, and explicitly includes maritime and aviation connectivity.
For a Dubai office the interesting part is not speed, it is independence. A second fibre line from a second provider often shares a duct, a building riser or an exchange with the first, so the thing that takes one down takes both. A satellite path shares none of that. It is the first genuinely separate second route most small offices have ever been able to buy.
That matters more than it used to. Once invoicing is exchanged through a provider in near real time, an outage stops you issuing invoices, which is the argument we set out on e-invoicing IT readiness. The same logic applies to a site office with no fibre at all, a warehouse at the edge of a compound, and a vessel, which we covered in our note on internet connectivity at sea.
One thing to be clear about: Starlink holds the licence, not us. The subscription and the hardware are bought in your name directly from Starlink. What we do is the survey, the installation, and the work of making it behave as part of your network rather than as a second Wi-Fi box in the corner.
What we get called in to fix
- A second fibre line bought for resilience that shares a building riser, a duct or an exchange with the first, so the street works that takes one down takes both.
- A site office, yard or warehouse at the edge of a compound where the fixed-line quote is months out, running on a mobile hotspot that was never meant to carry a working day.
- A dish mounted wherever the bracket happened to fit, with a parapet, a plant room or a taller neighbour clipping the sky view, so the link drops without an obvious cause.
- Satellite installed as a separate Wi-Fi box in the corner, so when the primary line fails somebody has to walk round the office telling people to switch networks.
- Failover that has never been tested, so nobody knows whether the firewall actually moves the traffic until the morning it matters.
Who needs this
Dubai offices of 5–200 people that depend on IT every hour but do not have an in-house IT department — professional firms, trading companies, clinics, agencies and start-ups.
What a satellite installation covers:
- A site survey for sky view, because the dish needs an unobstructed view and a Dubai rooftop usually has plant, parapets or a taller neighbour in the way.
- Mounting, weatherproofing and a cable route that an inspection will pass, including lightning and earthing considerations.
- Power at the mount point, which is the detail most quotes leave out.
- Integration into your existing firewall and router rather than a parallel network nobody manages.
- Automatic failover configured and then tested by pulling the primary line deliberately, so you know what happens before it happens.
- Device and network segmentation carried over, so the satellite path is not a way around your security rules.
- Vessel and remote site installs, including yachts and site offices, where mounting and motion need more thought.
- Documentation: what is installed, how failover behaves, and who holds the Starlink account.
When satellite is the wrong answer
If you have good fibre and an office with a clear rooftop, satellite is a backup rather than a primary. It is affected by heavy rain, it needs a clear view of the sky, and for a desk-bound office in a serviced building a second terrestrial line from a genuinely different carrier may be cheaper and simpler. We will tell you when that is the case. Where it earns its place is anywhere a cable is slow to arrive, expensive to install, or shares a path with the line it is meant to be backing up.
What is in scope, and what is not
In scope: a survey for sky view and mounting position, the mount itself with weatherproofing, earthing and a cable route that an inspection will pass, power at the mount point, and integration into your existing firewall and router so the satellite path is a route your network already knows about. Failover is configured and then tested by deliberately disconnecting the primary line in a window you choose, and the result is written down. Network separation carries across, so the satellite path is not a way around your security rules. Vessel and remote site installs are in scope, where motion and mounting need more planning than a rooftop.
Not in scope: the hardware and the subscription, which are bought in your name directly from Starlink so the account and the billing stay yours. We install and integrate; we are not a reseller, not a satellite operator, and the licence is Starlink's rather than ours, granted by TDRA. Structural work to a roof, and the landlord or owners' association permission to mount anything on it, are also outside what we can sign off.
How pricing works
Quoted as a fixed scope after a free site survey, itemised line by line — equipment, cabling, licences and labour — so the total is known before work starts. Ongoing support is a separate, predictable monthly fee per user or device.
How implementation works
- Consult — a free site survey and a conversation about headcount, floor plan and what is already in place.
- Design & source — a fixed-scope proposal with equipment listed item by item.
- Install — delivered, tested and documented on site, usually outside working hours.
- Manage — monitoring, helpdesk and monthly management under a support plan, or on-call support if you prefer.
What to compare when choosing a provider
- Are response and on-site targets written down by priority?
- Is the quote a fixed scope, itemised, or hourly?
- Who attends site — employed engineers or subcontractors?
- Which business-grade brands are proposed, and why those?
- Will you receive documentation you own — diagrams, accounts, port maps?
- What exactly is excluded, and what does it cost when it happens?
Planning this for your office? Read our in-depth guide: Failover that actually fails over: testing the second internet line (11 min read). Also: What a Starlink installation actually involves on a Dubai building · Starlink for a Dubai office: when it is a real second line and when it is not.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. TDRA granted Starlink Satellite Communications LLC a ten-year General Space Services Licence on 28 August 2026, covering a public satellite communications network and broadband satellite internet in the UAE, with a scope that includes businesses, government entities, and maritime and aviation connectivity.
No. The hardware and the subscription are bought in your name directly from Starlink, which keeps the account and the billing yours. We quote only the survey, the installation and the network integration, and we are not a satellite operator.
For most offices, no, and we would not recommend it. Treat it as a second path that fails over automatically when the primary drops. For a site office, a remote yard or a vessel where fibre is not available at all, it can reasonably be the primary.
Those are two of the strongest cases for it, and TDRA names maritime connectivity in the licence scope. Mounting, motion and power need more planning than a rooftop, and a vessel install is a different job from an office one, so the survey matters more rather than less.
Our work sits in the usual range of AED 2,500 to AED 30,000 depending on the mount, the cable run, whether failover has to be configured across an existing firewall, and whether it is an office, a site or a vessel. The hardware and the monthly subscription are billed to you by Starlink and are not ours to quote.
You do, both of them. The dish and the subscription are ordered in your company's name directly from Starlink, which means the account, the billing and the ability to cancel all stay with you. We quote the survey, the install and the network integration, and nothing we do depends on holding your subscription.
Almost always, and it is worth asking before the survey rather than after. A rooftop mount usually means roof access, a cable penetration and sometimes a structural opinion, all of which belong to the building owner or the owners' association. We will tell you what the install needs so you can ask the right question, but the permission is yours to obtain.
The link degrades and can drop, which is the honest limitation of any satellite path and the main reason we treat it as a second route rather than a replacement for good fibre. For most Dubai offices that trade-off is acceptable precisely because it is the backup: rain affecting the satellite link and street works affecting the cable are unlikely to happen on the same afternoon.
Written by Srinivasan Ramachandran, Founder, Listonics · Last reviewed October 13, 2026