Faith Nyasuguta
Starlink, the satellite internet company from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has officially become operational in Kenya.
The Tesla CEO made the announcement in a Twitter statement on Tuesday just moments after Starlink did the same.
“Starlink for sale in Kenya! Note, buying a Starlink with global roaming allows you to travel almost anywhere,” said Musk.
“Starlink is now available in Kenya,” said the internet service provider operated by Musk’s spacecraft corporation, SpaceX.
According to the company’s website, Starlink has launched in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, and Nakuru, among other towns in the country.
Kenyans will cough up Ksh.74,216 ($599) to register for the internet service which began launching satellites in 2019.
Starlink, which is already available in 44 countries globally, targets customers who struggle to access the internet through traditional landlines.
The internet service provider says it is capable of delivering speeds of over 150Mbps to any place on the planet, as long as its satellite dish has a clear view of the sky.
Starlink’s kit comes in three trim levels; Standard for “residential users and everyday internet applications” like streaming, video calls and online gaming; High Performance for “power user, business, and enterprise applications”.
This kit allows better speeds at high temperatures, can connect to more satellites, and is more resilient to extreme environments.
The most sophisticated of them all, the Flat High-Performance kit, targets “mobility applications and challenging environments”.
Starlink says this option has a wide field of view and enhanced GPS capabilities, it can connect to more satellites to allow for consistent connectivity while on the go, and the hardware is designed for a permanent installation and is more resilient to extreme environments.
The kit comes with the Starlink dish, mounting tripod, Wi-Fi router, router mount, power supply, power supply mount, and cables.
Starlink had been approved to operate in different African countries including Nigeria, Rwanda, and Mozambique. Starlink expects to be operational in Ghana in 2024.
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