“In at least five of the 16 African countries where the service is available, a monthly Starlink subscription is cheaper than the leading fixed internet service provider,” reports Rest of World.
“Starlink, launched in 2019 by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has become the leading satellite internet provider in the world.”
Now available in more than 100 countries, Starlink can also be a relatively affordable option for users trying to log on in countries with limited internet service providers… A Rest of World analysis indicates that in at least five of the 16 African countries where the service is available, a monthly Starlink subscription is cheaper than the leading fixed internet service provider… [Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Cape Verde — though not including the upfront costs of Starlink hardware.]
Historically, internet connections around the globe have typically been enabled by ground-based internet service providers using fiber-optic cables and mobile base stations. But in many parts of the world, that infrastructure is sparse or nonexistent. “This is where satellite providers come in,” said Nitinder Mohan, a computer science professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands who has studied Starlink’s performance around the world. “I can be in the middle of a forest and, if I have a direct view of the sky, I can get my internet connectivity,” he told Rest of World. “Regions which are previously underconnected — where there was no way of getting internet connectivity to them — now with these satellites, you can actually enable that….” According to the latest figures by the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency focused on information and communication technologies, 38% of the population in Africa uses the internet, compared to 91% of Europe…
Since launching in Kenya in July 2023, Starlink has disrupted the existing internet service provider industry. Starlink offers high connectivity speeds and wide availability in remote areas, along with dramatically lower prices. The company also introduced a rental option… Starlink has become so popular in Kenya that the company paused new subscriptions in major cities in early November due to network overload. The company plans to deploy more infrastructure in Nairobi and Johannesburg in order to bring more people online, said Mohan, the computer science professor at Delft University.
Starlink is less than half the cost of the leading ISP in Kenya Ghana, and especially in Zimbabwe (where the difference is dramatic):
Starlink: $30
Leading ISP in Zimbabwe: $633.62
Now in Kenya legacy telecom providers like Safaricom “have responded by lowering prices and increasing internet speeds,” according to the article. The head of the research wing of the Global Systems for Mobile Communications Association even told Rest of World ISPS are also developing their own satellite networks (like Vodacom’s partnership with satellite mobile network AST SpaceMobile) — though ironically, AST SpaceMobile launched its first satellites with the help of SpaceX.