Nigerians now able to preorder Elon Musk’s Starlink service

Yusuf Abdulfatai -

Nigerians can now preorder kits for Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk and launched in the country in December 2022, seven months after the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) granted SpaceX an Internet service provider license.

The Starlink satellite Internet service, provided by SpaceX, the space exploration company owned by Musk, provides high-speed, low-latency broadband Internet through a constellation of satellites orbiting the Earth.

Nigerians will need to purchase a $600 setup kit, as well as a $43 monthly subscription fee to use the service.

Starlink’s arrival in Nigeria comes after the company received approval to operate in the country and Mozambique in May. It is also set to launch in Tanzania, subject to regulatory approval, in the first quarter of this year. The service will be available in Dar es Salaam and four other cities in Tanzania.

The rollout of Starlink in Nigeria is particularly exciting news for a country that has struggled with inadequate internet infrastructure and slow internet speeds.

The service has the potential to provide much-needed connectivity to millions of people across the country, including those in remote and underserved areas. Consumers will be able to access the service through $99 installation kits, which can be pre-ordered on the Starlink website.

SpaceX is just one of many ventures owned and managed by Musk. Musk is also the owner of Twitter and the CEO of the electric vehicle company Tesla.

Musk is the co-founder of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and OpenAI. OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning in recent years, producing neural networks like ChatGPT that produce human-like text.

Despite his impressive list of accomplishments, the leading billionaire recently lost his position as the world’s richest person to French billionaire Bernard Arnault. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the value of his Tesla stock, which makes up the majority of his wealth, dropped, resulting in his fall from the top spot.

Musk is now on the verge of losing his position as the second-richest man in the world to Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, which could mark the first time since 1990 that an American does not rank as either the richest or the second-richest man in the world.