Elon Musk’s satellite internet firm, Starlink, has announced its availability in Kenya meaning consumers can now subscribe to its services.
Kenya is among three countries in Africa which the satellite internet provider now has active operations in.
“Starlink for sale in Kenya! Note, buying a Starlink with global roaming allows you to travel almost anywhere,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX Chief Executive Officer on his official twitter handle.
According to the firm, customers will will pay Ksh 89,000 for shipping the Starlink hardware, and another Ksh 3000 for shipping.
The firm will also charge users Ksh 6,500 per month for its satellite internet service.
The entry by the firm now sets ups Kenya for an increased competition in the internet market currently dominated by mobile broadband and optical fibre.
Latest statistics indicates that Kenya’s available satellite bandwidth capacity remained flat at 2.513 gigabytes per second (Gbps) between the second quarter ending December and third quarter ending March compared to 14,413.053Gbps available undersea bandwidth capacity during the period.
On the other hand, total utilised satellite capacity capacity remained flat at 0.105Gbps.
Kenya currently has a total of 411 satellite internet subscribers, a number now expected to increase with entry of Starlink into the Kenyan market as reports indicate that Safaricom is also looking to introduce the services.
Besides Kenya, Starlink is also available in Nigeria, Rwanda and Mozambique.
