A Kenyan lawmaker is contemplating having the satellite internet service provider regulated through parliament to curb stiff competition major telecom companies like Safaricom are facing as the market expands for Elon Musk.
Starlink, which aims to provide low-latency, high-speed internet across the globe, especially to the underserved and remote areas, has sent shockwaves to the local ISPs such as Safaricom, Zuku, Airtel, and Telkom, whose expansion in the internet service market now remains in limbo.
Starlink was activated in Kenya in October last year following President Ruto’s state visit to the United States, during which he visited several tech hubs to sway them to invest in the country. Musk’s company has since attracted many customers in the country with its middle-class, affordable discounts on hardware kits, compared to the loathsome charges offered by the local ISPs.
Safaricom, which has been the leading company and controls the vast share of the market since early 2000, has currently extended its cable to major towns but hasn’t managed to cover the rural areas.
SpaceX sent more satellites to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which brings a total to 7,000 satellites, constituting roughly two-thirds of the total Earth active satellites. This could mean extensive access by rural residents.
Manyatta Constituency lawmaker, John Gitonga Mukunji, has said that they are going to discuss how to deal with competitors when they return from recess. He was referring to Starlink, which claims it does not give back to the community.
“There’s an American company called Starlink that has introduced its internet services into the country. When we return to the National Assembly, we’re going to discuss how we are going to protect and deal with competitors who want to take our money and cannot give back to the community. Starlink’s entry into the market is creating competition for Safaricom,” Hon. Gitonga Mukunji stated.
Earlier last month, Safaricom wrote to the Communications Authority of Kenya, asking them to assess the risk of granting independent licenses to satellite internet service providers. This came after Starlink Kenya reduced the hardware kit price from Ksh. 45,000 to Ksh. 29,999.
“Safaricom kindly requests the Communications Authority of Kenya (“CA”) to carefully assess the risks of granting independent licenses to satellite service providers and the consequent harm it may cause to Kenya. We propose that the CA instead consider mandating that satellite service providers only operate in Kenya, subject to such providers establishing agreement with an existing local license,” Safaricom wrote to the CA.
