Bhutan registered 65 Starlink users between December last year and mid-March this year. According to the Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority, while satellite internet service is slowly gaining popularity, many users are facing difficulties making payments through local financial systems, resulting in delays in accessing the service.
Among the 65 Starlink users, many reported that local bank cards do not work when trying to purchase the Starlink kit online.
While a few have managed to purchase the kit using MasterCard from the banks in the country, several users have had to use international cards, mostly those belonging to relatives living abroad to subscribe to the service.
Deepak Darlami, Starlink user said “For the purchase of the Starlink kit, I used T-Bank’s international debit card, and per person, it had a limit of up to 1000 US dollars in a year. Therefore, making monthly payments was difficult since I had already exhausted my quota. To use the service, payment had to be done through international card so I asked my relatives to pay through their card and I transferred the amount to their account.”
He added besides the payment difficulty, internet speed is not an issue for now.
Leki Choden, CEO of Dragon Coders said “We tried to order through Starlink website but then I found out that we cannot use our corporate card so then we wrote to BoB and they replied saying that they are working on payment gateway integration and then asked us to wait for a while. We waited but still it was not working, so then I contacted my niece in Australia and used her card.”
Bank officials said that most local cards do not currently support Starlink’s recurring payment model or automated monthly deductions, which is a requirement for Starlink’s subscription-based service.
In response to the payment difficulties faced by Bhutanese users, the Bank of Bhutan said it is working closely with Starlink to roll out a dedicated Internet Payment Gateway tailored for local users.
According to BoB officials, the new system will allow customers to link their debit or credit cards with Starlink and enable automatic monthly billing in ngultrum, eliminating the need for foreign currency or repeated manual entries. This functionality is expected to undergo rigorous end-to-end testing within the next four to five weeks.
BICMA expects the number of users to increase further once a reliable, locally integrated payment gateway is in place.
BICMA receives a quarterly information update on the number of subscribers in the country from Starlink. The next update on Starlink users is expected in the first week of June.
Kinley Bidha
Edited by Phub Gyem
