Original Story Published by: Victor Oluwole, www.africa.businessinsider.com
Photo Source: Courtesy of Starlink Website
(Above) Elon Musk & Starlink.
Elon Musk's satellite internet firm, Starlink, has announced plans to launch in Kenya in the second quarter of this year. This move marks the company's expansion into the African market and is part of Starlink's mission to provide internet access to remote and underserved areas around the world.
Kenyans can currently pre-order and deposit a fully refundable amount of Sh12,260 ($99) to reserve the service, if approved. The company announced on its website that it is targeting service in areas such as Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, and Nakuru, among other towns in the country, starting from the three months ending June.
The company's entry into Kenya will be faced with stiff competition from some players in the business. Safaricom, the leading internet service provider in Kenya, has spent billions of shillings over the past five years on building its fixed-data network to connect homes, amid growth for online streaming services like Netflix. The current internet service providers mainly offer connectivity via fibre optic cables, over Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
Starlink, an offshoot of Mr Musk's space technology firm SpaceX, on the other hand, delivers internet from satellites. The company uses satellites to provide broadband internet across the globe, much like the global positioning system (GPS) provides location data to cell phones around the planet. Unlike GPS, it requires thousands of satellites for service to work without drops in coverage.
To read the full article, visit www.africa.businessinsider.com.
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