Elon Musk’s Starlink internet approved in Nigeria, Mozambique

Tech investor and celebrity billionaire, Elon Musk, has declared that his telecommunication and internet service company, Starlink, can now technically launch off commercial operations in Nigeria and Mozambique to establish a foothold in Africa.

Starlink is said to hold license to operate commercial internet services in about 32 countries, and its launch in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, has been in the works since 2021.

Our checks also showed that domestic industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has run a full process of licensing the company which approached the country last year with request for operating license.

Last May, SpaceX sent some representatives to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to discuss the possibility of obtaining a license to operate Starlink in Nigeria. And the NCC approved two operating licenses for Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Limited with effect from May 2022 and may be renewed after the expiration.

The company received the International Gateway license with a 10-year tenure; and the Internet Service Provider (ISP) license which has a five year tenure.

With high speeds and latency as low as 20 minutes in most locations, Starlink enables video calls, online gaming, streaming, and other high data rate activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet.

The American tech billionaire who is behind the leading global electric vehicle brand, Tesla, and commercial space shuttle, Space X, is currently in complicated transaction to acquire controlling shares in leading micro-blogging social media platform, Twitter.

Starlink is the internet service appendage to the SpaceX orbital shuttle services company which currently shoots rockets that shuttle astronauts to and from the international space station (ISS).

The Oracle Today reports that Elon Musk announced on Friday that Starlink has been approved to operate in Nigeria and Mozambique.

This news is coming three days after Musk answered a tweet about the service launch in Africa.

“Yes, first countries in Africa to be announced coming soon,” he tweeted. “Starlink will serve everywhere on Earth that we’re legally allowed to serve.”

SpaceX is reportedly raising prices for Starlink in the United States, including the price for the hardware kit itself, as well as the monthly fee for service.

Also, Starlink hardware is estimated to cost US customers about $549 for the kit which includes the Starlink receiver dish, modem and router. Monthly subscription is put at about $110.

Starlink stated that it has expanded its infrastructure considerably since launch, tripling how many satellites it has on orbit and quadrupling the number of ground stations in place to relay connectivity.

In Nigeria, Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Limited will compete with firmly established players like the MTN, Glo and Airtel.

It is expected that while Starlink will challenge existing players with world class service standards, the local competition will also moderate the new player’s dollar denominated charges to cut down to rates that rule the African commercial environment.