The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has licensed Starlink, a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite internet access coverage to 32 countries.
This licensing followed a visit to Nigeria by the company’s
team in May last year.
Elated Elon Musk took to his Twitter handle to announce this
development today. The NCC has equally included Starlink among licensees in
Nigeria on its website.
Musk tweeted @elonmusk, “Starlink approved by Nigeria and
Mozambique.”
The Guardian learnt that the deal was actually sealed at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, earlier in the year before all the
paper works were completed this month.
Checks showed that the company received two licences, which
include the international gateway licence and Internet Service Provider (ISP)
licence, and will be trading as Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Ltd.
According to NCC, the international gateway licence has
10-year tenure, while the ISP licence is to last for five years. Both licences
take effect from May 2022 and may be renewed after the expiration.
With high speeds and latency as low as 20 minutes in most
locations, Starlink enables video calls, online gaming, streaming, and other
high data rate activities that historically have not been possible with
satellite Internet. Users also have the option to take Starlink with them via
the Portability feature or Starlink.
In May last year, Starlink’s Market Access Director for
Africa, Ryan Goodnight along with SpaceX consultant, Levin Born had paid a visit
to the NCC where they expressed interest to obtain a licence to operate the
satellite internet in the country.
Prior to the visit, the regulator and the space company have
been discussing the issue virtually before approval for a physical meeting was
granted by the NCC.
After SpaceX representatives provided an overview of its
plans, expectations, licensing requests and deployment phases, the Executive
Vice-Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, represented by the Executive
Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Ubale Maska, promised them that the NCC
would work on necessary modalities to ensure that it balances the need for
healthy competition vis-a-vis the entry of new technologies, in order to
protect all industry stakeholders.
Maska had said: “As the regulator of a highly dynamic sector
in Nigeria, the Commission is conscious of the need to ensure that our
regulatory actions are anchored on national interest.
We have listened to your presentation and we will review it
vis-à-vis our regulatory direction of ensuring effective and a sustainable
telecoms ecosystem where a licensee’s operational model does not dampen healthy
competition among other licensees.”