Starlink has its sights set on Nigeria: Here is what we know.

Better internet finally ?

On the 7th of May, 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) published a press release highlighting relevant takeaways from their engagement with Starlink’s Market Access Director, Ryan Goodnight and a company consultant, Levin Born.

Starlink (a SpaceX company) is another one of Elon Musk’s innovative attempts to create solutions to a persistent problem. In this case, Internet access. The percentage of internet users per country vary with economic development and urbanization as you might expect; with developed nations like the US having as high as 85% of its population with internet access, while other countries such as Somalia struggle with a measly 12.5%.

In 2021, internet penetration is necessary to any economic growth efforts, and several governments of developing countries are prioritizing the expansion of the digital ecosystem. With a penetration rate of 46.6%, the Nigerian Government seems to be on a pathway of collaborations with international organisations to achieve the 70% penetration rate goal by 2025 of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS). First it was with Microsoft, and now, Starlink, and let’s not forget the $1 billion undersea fibre optics cable by Facebook. The primary question is will these projects widen access (via coverage and pricing) and improve the quality of the Nigerian internet experience?

Starlink uses a constellation of low-orbit satellites to provide internet access by communicating with ground transceivers. The low-orbit feature translates to a low latency i.e the time it takes to transfer chunks of data from one point to the next. This simply means that the satellites are closer, data transfer is faster and internet usage experience is better. This technology is ideal for rural communities that may not be able to support and manage the infrastructure for traditional internet sources. Starlink claims to be the solution to the problem of access and quality. But, what about price?

In beta testing, available in the US and internationally, the company offers a pre-order service with 6-month long wait for fulfilment. This service promises data speeds of up to 150Mb/s and has its long-term goals set as high as 1GB/s. The average Nigerian accesses the internet at an appalling 15.3Mb/s (mobile) and 11.87Mb/s (fixed broadband) and those are on the days your telco provider decides not to choose wickedness.

Starlink’s website speaks about an effort to continuously enhance the system including increasing ground station installations, improving data speed, latency, uptime amongst other objectives. Despite the promise of increased access, the price is not so friendly to the average Nigerian. Pre-order starts at $99; the Starlink kit with the Wifi router, cables and a mounting tripod costs $499. With the going black market exchange rate, an individual is expected to pay a one-off N248,000 and N49,203 monthly to access better quality internet. Why?

In a fiscally irresponsible and economically volatile country like Nigeria, Starlink’s entry will serve only the upper middle class and above.  One of its primary goals of enabling access in rural communities just seems like a farfetched cry not achievable in a developing country. Except its management team has plans for differentiated pricing, the masses simply cannot afford it.

Regardless of these concerns, you can expect an official entry into the Nigerian market in late 2021 before they expand to other African countries in 2022. The Executive Vice chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta emphasised on maintaining competition with the entry of disruptive technologies such as Satellite Internet Services.

Ubale Maska, the Executive Commissioner during the engagement with the Starlink team said “As the regulator of a highly dynamic sector in Nigeria, the commission is conscious of the need to ensure that our regulatory actions are anchored on national interest”.

A.k.a telcos, do not be afraid. We need you to make profits so we can continue to collect our tax and levies.

We expect some regulatory guidelines to emerge in the following months and determine the execution trajectory for Starlink, and ultimately, its availability to customers. I welcome anyone who is willing to give Airtel and Spectranet a run for their money.

Till then, I continue my struggle with my personal hotspot and 2 internet routers.

Read the Press Release here

Curious about satellite tracking? Here is Starlink satellite 46135

Update: Prices stated here were valid at the time published.

The new price as listed on the website is N268,584 for the mounting tripod and N19,260 for monthly subscription; but payment made using a dollar card is the only accepted means. The chances of an interested customer paying twice those amounts are very high.