Elon Musk Starlink Now Available in Nigeria, Slashes Subscription Price

Elon Musk Broadband internet service system Starlink is now available in Nigeria and has slashed its subscription price to make it more affordable.

Announcing its availability in Africa’s most populous country, the company wrote on its Twitter handle, “Starlink is now available in Nigeria, the first African country to receive this service”

Responding to the Tweet, Nigeria’s minister of communications and Digital economy Professor Isa Ali Pantami wrote, “We have made it again @spacex. Thank you for hosting me in your headquarters, in USA in December 2022, to complete the logistics for the deployment”.

The new price for the Starlink hardware is now pegged at $595 (N274,098), and $42 (N19,260) per month, which allows up to 128 device connections and uncapped data.

The company had earlier fixed the price of its hardware at $600 (438,000) and a monthly subscription of $43 (31,000) at the parallel black market rate at that time.

Once users purchase the Starlink hardware, it comes with everything they need to get online in minutes, which includes the Starlink, WiFi router, Cables, and base.

The launch of Starlink broadband internet service in Nigeria is coming months after the Internet service was approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on May 2022, to begin operations.

Investors King understands that Starlink’s launch in Nigeria has been in the works since 2021. The company had earlier sent some of its representatives to the Commission of Nigerian communication (NCC) to discuss the possibility of obtaining a license to operate in Nigeria after disclosing that it saw the country as a critical market.

Renowned for its impressive internet speed of 104 Mbps, a sharp contrast to the average internet speed of 17.38 Mbps, Starlink delivers super-fast internet via satellites, and it is theoretically capable of delivering 150mbps internet speeds to any place on earth.

Few analysts disclose that Starlink’s launch in Nigeria will no doubt heighten competition amongst telecom operators in the country.