Less than two years after its debut, Elon Musk’s Starlink now has over 16,700 subscribers, according to the data for July to September 2024 from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
- Starlink had just over 8,000 subscribers – a meteoric rise from 405 subscribers in June 2023 and 4, 808 in March 2024 -by the end of June 2024.
- The satellite internet service now has 1.1% share of the fixed data subscriptions market, surpassing Liquid Telecommunications Kenya and Vijiji Connect.
- Safaricom still maintains the lead with over 575,000 subscribers (36.6% market share), followed by Jamii Telecommunications with 24.4% and Wananchi Group’s 16.8%.
- Starlink’s growth also triggered a 152.8% surge in utilised satellite internet capacity.
“Satellite internet subscriptions recorded a significant increase of 104.7 percent during the reference period attributed to a customer acquisition campaign run by Starlink Internet Services Kenya that introduced an option to rent satellite equipment at a reduced cost,” CA said in its quarterly statistics report.
Poa Internet has 198,609 subscribers (12.6% market share) while Mawingu Networks has 44,311 subscribers (2.8% market share).
In April last year, Starlink provided a 30-day window that slashed prices of the installation kit from KSh 89,000 to about KSh 45,000. In August, the service introduced a rental plan for its hardware kits, lowering the onboarding costs even further. The incentives saw other ISPs launch competitive promotions, including hiking internet speeds and reducing prices for their packages. Safaricom also raised concerns with the regulator about Starlink, claiming that its independent existence in the market could endanger the nation’s regulatory oversight.
Starlink has introduced a ground facility in Nairobi to route its subscribers in Africa. The ‘point of presence’ will improve the network’s performance by reducing latency from about 120 milliseconds to less than 30 milliseconds. The satellite service is also planning to introduce direct-to-device internet from satellites, which would eliminate the need for hardware kits and costs associated with purchasing them.
Earlier this month, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) announced plans to introduce a license fee for complex network equipment such as Starlink’s at KSh 250,000 every 15 years. The authority also wants satellite internet firms to pay an annual operating fee charged at 0.4% of turnover every year. Smaller players in the market are bound to feel the heat of the proposed guidelines, and the new costs are likely to be passed on to consumers.
