Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, received federal government approval on Friday to launch his Starlink network in Nigeria.
The SpaceX founder will now compete for Nigeria’s massive telecommunications market with MTN, Airtel, and others.
The billionaire’s announcement revealed that the Federal government granted his company permission to operate in Nigeria after months of negotiations.
Musk’s Starlink is a SpaceX satellite internet constellation that provides satellite Internet access coverage to 32 countries where its use is licensed.
It could be argued that Nigerians will not only benefit from a fast network, but also from low-latency broadband that has been optimized to process a large volume of data with minimal delay.
Speaking, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) confirmed to Nairametrics that it has licensed Starlink, a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX.
This licensing followed a visit to Nigeria by the company’s team in May last year.
According to NCC, the International Gateway license has a 10-year tenure while the ISP license is to last for five years. Both licenses take effect from May 2022 and may be renewed after the expiration.
