At a gathering tagged the U.S. Space Forum held on the sidelines of last December’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit (a conference that took some 49 African Heads-of-State to Washington D.C.), Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantamni, revealed that SpaceX’s Starlink has commenced deployment and operation of its novel internet facilities in Nigeria.
“With this collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink, Nigeria is
set to be the first African country to introduce the service,” Pantami
emphasised.
On the partnership with SpaceX and StarLink. They have now commenced the deployment of their facilities in Nigeria.
— Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (@ProfIsaPantami) December 29, 2022
Nigeria is the first African country to reach that partnership & also approval for the deployment. pic.twitter.com/QamCN2AG4z
And apparently, Gbadebo Bello, a software engineer and
technical writer who took the device on something of a test run in Abeokuta, a
city less than two hours from Lagos in Nigeria’s South-West, is one of
Starlink’s first group of users on the continent.
SpaceX Starlink Internet service will soon be available
across the West African country of Nigeria, according to Nigeria’s Minister of
Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ali Pantami.
SpaceX already delivered some Starlink user terminals to the
country to commence services. “As part of the partnership, SpaceX is to provide
broadband access across the whole of Nigeria, enabling nationwide access to
broadband connectivity way ahead of the December 2025 schedule, as outlined in
our national broadband plan,” said Pantami.
“With this collaboration with SpaceX’s Starlink, Nigeria is
set to be the first African country to introduce the service.”
Nigeria’s goals was to cover 90% of the country’s population
with reliable internet access by 2025, the goal is now attainable because the
Starlink satellite network is easy to set up and capable of beaming high-speed
internet to rural and remote communities. SpaceX’s official Starlink Coverage
Map says the service is ‘coming soon’ to Nigeria, users must input their
address on the website to find out if its already available in their specific
area.
The company sent an email to potential customers living in
Nigeria, stating that the service is available for pre-order. “Order now to
reserve your Starlink. Starlink expects to expand service in your area
[Nigeria] in 2023. You will receive a notification once your Starlink is ready
to ship,” the email says. The hardware to access the satellite internet service
costs $600 [N438,000] in Nigeria with an internet subscription of $43 [N31,390]
per month.
Bello Gbadebo, a software engineer and technical writer who
lives in Nigeria, shared on Twitter [@Gbahdeyboh] that he had the opportunity
to test the Starlink network this week. He is one of the first-ever Starlink
users in the continent.
“Just got a chance to test my SpaceX Starlink out. I haven't
tested extensively (I intend to do so this weekend) but I'm pretty impressed so
far,” he said on January 3rd. “Got about 20Mbps [Megabits per second] on the
initial test and it went up to about 240Mbps afterwards.
Just got a chance to test my @SpaceX #Starlink out. I haven't tested extensively (I intend to do so this weekend) but I'm pretty impressed so far. Got about 20Mbps on the initial test and it went up to about 240Mbps afterwards. The latency is pretty decent as well. pic.twitter.com/4e3w0jqXDL
— Bello Gbadebo (@Gbahdeyboh) January 3, 2023
The latency is pretty decent as well,” he shared. “I'm
testing from Abeokuta, Ogun State where I've struggled greatly with sub par
Internet. Even hubs here don't have the internet bit figured out yet, so it's
really a big deal to me that I'm able to get above 200Mbps,” said Bello. “I get
this speed despite not putting the dish in a very elevated space and having
over 30% obstruction which my Starlink considers really bad. Wondering if it'll
get any better if placed on the roof.”
He also shared a photo of the Starlink antenna and a screenshot of the internet speed test.I get this speed despite not putting the dish in a very elevated space and having over 30% obstruction which my Starlink considers really bad. Wondering if it'll get any better if placed on the roof.
— Bello Gbadebo (@Gbahdeyboh) January 3, 2023
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