By Brian Okoth
Twitter in Kenya went into overdrive on Tuesday when Elon Musk announced that Starlink had rolled out its services in the East African nation.
Starlink is a satellite internet provider belonging to SpaceX, a spaceflight company owned by Musk, the world’s richest person and the owner of social media platform Twitter.
“Starlink for sale in Kenya! Note, buying a Starlink with global roaming allows you to travel almost anywhere [in the world and still access Starlink internet services],” Musk tweeted, getting more than 19,300 retweets, 9,400 comments and reaching more than 29 million Twitter accounts.
The name “Starlink” featured among the topmost trends in Kenya on Tuesday, as many internet users expressed their delight at getting a new internet network option.
“Starlink is ideally suited for areas where connectivity has been unreliable or completely unavailable,” the Starlink main page says.
“People across the globe are using Starlink to gain access to education, health services and even communications support during natural disasters.”
Sixth African nation
Kenya becomes the sixth African country to get Starlink services after Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius and Sierra Leone. The service is also present in at least 45 other countries globally.
In Kenya, Starlink would offer competition to local internet service providers, including telecommunications companies Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom. Other competitors would be Jamii Telecommunication Limited, which offers Faiba internet, and Zuku Fiber.
Kenyans have often taken to social media to voice their concerns about high data costs, slow internet speeds and lack of coverage in many rural parts of the country.
In the East African nation, high speed internet – 5G and 4G – is concentrated in major urban centres including the capital Nairobi, the coastal city of Mombasa, Western Kenya city of Kisumu and Rift Valley city of Nakuru.
Other major towns are Eldoret in Rift Valley, Kisii in Western Kenya and Thika in Central Kenya.
In the country, the average price for a 5-megabytes-per-second (Mbps) internet service is Ksh2,000 ($14) monthly. Ten Mbps costs an average of Ksh3,500 ($25) monthly, while 20 Mbps costs Ksh4,500 ($32).
Starlink’s high installation cost
Safaricom, the country’s leading telecommunications company, charges Ksh6,300 ($44) monthly for 40 Mbps and Ksh12,500 ($88) monthly for 100 Mbps internet.
The latest entrant, Starlink, charges even much higher for home internet service, including the connection.
Purchasing equipment to facilitate Starlink connections, will cost a Kenyan user Ksh89,000 ($628), while the monthly subscription charge will be at least Ksh6,500 ($46).
One would need more than Ksh92,000 ($650) to start using Starlink home internet in Kenya. The download speed ranges from 20 Mbps to 200 Mbps, with an average speed in many countries being 65 Mbps.
Safaricom charges Ksh3,000 ($21) for a new connection, Faiba charges Ksh15,000 ($106) while Zuku does not charge for any new installations.
Kenyan company, Karibu Connect, has been contracted as the authorised reseller for Starlink in the country.
“We are providing a plug and play solution aided by SpaceX huge satellite installation in the lower earth orbit that provides connectivity to the most remote areas of the continent,” says Karibu Connect on its website.
Kenya is among African countries with the highest internet usage, with at least 20 million people active on the different web platforms every month.
How Starlink works
Starlink is a satellite internet network that relies on thousands of satellites in close proximity to the earth's surface.
These satellites transmit signals to other satellites as well as ground stations to provide high-speed broadband internet services
Instead of using cable technology, such as fiber optics to transmit internet data, a satellite system uses radio signals through the vacuum of space.
Ground stations broadcast signals to satellites in orbits, which in turn transmit the data back to the Starlink users on earth.
Musk hopes to launch as many as 40,000 satellites across the world to boost internet service provision and space communication.
And because the satellites can be moved, Starlink is suitable for providing internet connection in areas that have poor network link, and disaster sites.
