Who will use Elon Musks Starlink in Africa?
Musk, who earned his first millions by creating and reselling the online payment service Paypal, shared other commercial leads. Starlink can be a profitable solution for telecom operators backhaul networks (intermediate networks that allow a satellite radio signal to be routed to a relay antenna), he said. A high-cost service  Musk (a Canadian since 1988 and a naturalised US citizen since 2002) is promoting the SpaceX service as a way to connect areas that are not covered by fibre optics or 3G and 4G frequencies. NGOs, which until now have used VSAT links (classic satellite connections) a lot, could also implement Elon Musks service in remote areas without 4G, 5G or fibre, says a senior pan-African operator executive. Musk said he is looking to invest $20-30bn in the project to continue launching satellites and that he is expecting to acquire half a million customers over the next 12 months. However, the service seems to be out of economic reach for most Africans: a subscriber has to pay an initial $499 (about 420) to get the equipment (a satellite dish, a tripod, a power cable and a router) and then $99 every month as connection fees. Some individuals who do not want their internet access to be monitored by local authorities or have homes in areas without coverage will subscribe to Starlink so that they remain unknown to local operators, he says, adding that the decision to apply the same pricing everywhere means that the satellite constellation wont become a service for the general public. A problem for hard-to-reach areas  To date, the satellite internet constellation launched in 2015 has more than 1,500 small satellites positioned in near-earth orbit (between 300 and 500km above our heads). According to the company based near Los Angeles, this provides a broadband connection of between 50 and 150 megabits per second (Mbit/s) for a latency of 20 to 40 milliseconds. Africa Insight Wake up to the essential with the Editor's picks. Sign up Also receive offers from The Africa Report Also receive offers from The Africa Report's partners SUCCESS ERROR  In comparison, a 4G connection provides 80-90 Mbps with an average latency of 50 milliseconds. The subscription can be cancelled at any time, provided that the equipment is returned within 30 days; however, this could pose a problem for Africas hard-to-reach areas. The article continues below Free download Get your free PDF: Top 200 banks 2019 The race to transform Complete the form and download, for free, the highlights from The Africa Reports Exclusive Ranking of Africas top 200 banks from last year. Get your free PDF by completing the following form Email Address * Title * Last name * First name * Country * Industry * Position * Get information from Jeune Afrique Media Group: subscription deals, special offers Close By downloading this PDF you agree to subscribe to The Africa Report Daily newsletter SUCCESS ERROR  Despite these limitations, Starlink  which is chaired by Gwynne Shotwell, an aeronautical engineer and Musks long-time right-hand woman  has begun discussions with Nigerian and South African regulators to obtain local operator licences. In South Africa, pre-orders are already open and the service should be operational by 2022. In South Africa, Starlink will be considered an Internet Service Provider (ISP), whose main distinction is that it uses satellite as its access network, says our telecom expert. According to him, this means that the service will be subjected to two different regimes: that of ISPs and that of satellite operators such as Eutelsat, Intelsat, Arabsat and others. Furthermore, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), rather than the local regulator, will be in charge of allocating frequencies. However, the regulator may make a request to do so, as was the case in the US in 2019. Already operational in 12 countries including the US, Canada, Germany, Poland, New Zealand and Australia, Starlink boasts 500,000 pre-orders and 69,000 users. At the Mobile World Congress, Musk also said he is looking to invest $20-30bn in the project to continue launching satellites and that he is expecting to acquire half a million customers over the next 12 months.