By: Damian Okonkwo
Elon Musk - the South African-born billionaire, also reputed as the world's richest man, has finalized plans to launch his satellite Internet service known as Starlink in Nigeria and will further extend this service to Mozambique.
This development was verified by the Nigerian Communications Commission through a public statement. According to NCC, the company had been given two licenses to begin operations in Nigeria such as “the International Gateway license and Internet Service Provider license, and will be trading as Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Ltd.” The commission further explained that the International Gateway license is valid for the next 10-year while the ISP license remains valid for the next 5-years. The two licenses are dated to take effect this month of May 2022 and are subject to renewal after expiration.
Musk probably, due to his African citizenship and love for Africa had considered it essential to take his internet services first to the giant country of Africa before taking it to other African countries including Mozambique which is the second country mentioned in his tweet.
This development comes just a few days after Musk promised Nigerian Twitter users not to worry that his satellite service would spread to Africa also.
Henceforth, the Starlink network will have to compete with the existing internet network in Nigeria such as Glo, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, etc.
The Starlink network is a satellite internet constellation run by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access to over 33 countries presently. This network is known to possess a very high speed with very low-latency broadband optimized to process a very high volume of data within the shortest time possible. This is no doubt the type of network Nigerian users who have become so addicted to the internet are craving. The banks too and other big international companies in the country will stand a chance to benefit so much from this network.