Nigeria approves Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service

The Federal Government has approved Elon Musk’s Starlink internet operated by SpaceX for use in Nigeria.

The firm offers satellite Internet access coverage to 32 countries where its use has been licensed.
The development was tweeted by the World’s richest man, Elon Musk via his Twitter handle. The Nigerian Communication Commission has also confirmed this.
Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency broadband internet across the globe.
Within each coverage area, orders are fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis.
This licensing followed a visit to Nigeria by the company’s team in May last year.
“The company received two licences, which include the International Gateway license and Internet Service Provider (ISP) license, and will be trading as Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Limited,” the NCC stated.

According to the NCC, the International Gateway licence has a 10-year tenure while the ISP license is to last for five years. Both licenses take effect from May 2022 and may be renewed after the expiration.
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.
Users also have the option to take Starlink with them via the Portability feature or Starlink.
Starlink’s visit to Nigeria
In May last year, Starlink’s Market Access Director for Africa, Ryan Goodnight along with SpaceX consultant, Levin Born had paid a visit to the NCC where they expressed interest to obtain a license to operate the satellite internet in the country.
Prior to the visit, the regulator and the space company have been discussing the issue virtually before approval for a physical meeting was granted by the NCC.
After SpaceX representatives provided an overview of its plans, expectations, licensing requests, and deployment phases, the Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Ubale Maska, promised them that the NCC would work on necessary modalities to ensure that it balances the need for healthy competition vis-a-vis the entry of new technologies, in order to protect all industry stakeholders.
He had 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.

“We have listened to your presentation and we will review it vis-à-vis our regulatory direction of ensuring effective and a sustainable telecoms ecosystem where a licensee’s operational model does not dampen healthy competition among other licensees.”
Maska further stated that the commission was interested in making necessary regulatory efforts to drive the coverage of rural, unserved, and underserved areas of the country through the accomplishments of the targets contained in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan, 2020-2025.