Elon Musk, a business magnate, announced that Starlink, a satellite internet service he launched through SpaceX, will be providing internet services to two countries in Africa including Nigeria.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) also confirmed this announcement, according to TechCabal. This follows a visit to Nigeria by the Starlink’s team in May last year to discuss the possibility of obtaining a licence.
SpaceX, Musk’s spacecraft engineering company, announced early in May that Starlink now operates in 32 countries.
Starlink will bring competition to the Nigerian market, taking on large telecoms like MTN and Airtel in a bid to bring stable internet connection to the country.
“The company received two licenses, which include the International Gateway license and Internet Service Provider (ISP) license, and will be trading as Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Ltd. According to NCC, the International Gateway license 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,” NCC confirmed, according to Nairametrics.
“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,” Executive Commissioner of Technical Services at NCC, Ubale Maska, told Nairametrics.
“We have listened to your presentation and we will review it vis-à-vis our regulatory direction of ensuring an effective and sustainable telecoms ecosystem where a licensee’s operational model does not dampen healthy competition among other licensees,” Maska said.
Maska added 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 (NNBP) 2020 to 2025.
By Zintle Nkohla
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