US-based space exploration company, SpaceX, is in talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to secure the required licenses to launch Starlink, its satellite Internet service, in Nigeria
Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, and it develops Starlink, a mega constellation on Satellites to bring commercial Internet services to people across the globe. As of April 2021, SpaceX had launched over 1,400 Starlink satellites.
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Starlink’s satellites, however, orbit very close to the earth, which helps to provide lower latency and faster Internet speeds across the globe.
Apparently, per the NCC, SpaceX has identified Nigeria as a critical market. Nigeria’s mostly young digitally savvy population and its massive population without access to the Internet (well over 100 million as reported by Statista) seem to be major attractions.
Starlink is not particularly cheap. Its $99 (₦37,670) monthly subscription fee and its $499 (₦190,000) set up fee, dwarf the $79 minimum wage earned by most Nigerians.