President William Ruto has backed US billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink entry into Kenya amid a petition from Safaricom to reconsider the award of a license for the satellite Internet provider.
Dr Ruto told the US-Kenya Business and Investment Roundtable that the signing of Starlink is in line with the government’s policy to expand Internet penetration and encourage competition in the market.
The American company, riding on the back of one of the world’s richest people worth $237 billion (Sh30.6 trillion), is betting to reduce Internet costs in a segment dominated by Safaricom, Jamii Telecommunications Limited (JTL) and Zuku.
But Safaricom wants the satellite operator to partner with an existing Internet service provider rather than set up shop as a stand-alone operation, arguing that direct entry into the market would jeopardize the quality of its mobile phone network.
“We are trying to expand our digital footprint across the country,” Dr Ruto said at the meeting, which was on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday.
“And it has its own competitive problem. I know I have a CEO for Safaricom here, sometimes they don’t like me because I bring other characters like Elon Musk and others to the board,” he said during a meeting attended by Kenya’s top CEOs , including Safaricom’s Peter Ndegwa.
“But you see, I keep encouraging Peter (Safaricom CEO) that the competition keeps you going, and he’s doing well, I have to admit, he’s really upping his game.
This is Dr Ruto’s first public support for Musk’s outfit since Safaricom asked the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) in July to re-evaluate its decision to grant independent licenses to satellite service providers, warning that the arrangement could allow illegal connections and harmful interference. with mobile networks.
Mr Musk is backing President Ruto in his dig at Safaricom.
“As the President of Kenya said, Starlink is causing local competitors to provide better services,” the billionaire said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Safaricom wants satellite service providers to act as infrastructure providers when it grants operating licenses to existing mobile network operators (MNOs).
The government owns a 35 per cent stake in Safaricom and earns Sh17 billion in profits from the telco – a position some analysts think will convince the State to offer protection to the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed company.
For the same price, Safaricom home fiber subscribers will now access 15 megabytes per second (mbps) from 10 mbps at Sh2,999; 30mbps up from 20; 80mbps doubled from 40; and 500mbps up from 100mbps.
The telecom operator also introduced a higher speed package of 1,000 megabytes mbps from the previous maximum of 100mbps in response to Starlink, which has shaken up the market since entering Kenya in July last year.
Kenya is among the few countries in Africa that allow Starlink. The others are Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Benin and Eswatini.
But Starlink’s entry into Africa has faced many regulatory hurdles in several countries. Some African markets classify Starlink as ‘illegal’ in their territory. These include Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Senegal and the DRC.
Earlier this year, Cameroon appealed to seize Starlink equipment at the port because the provider was not licensed.
Part of the concern of governments in Africa is the need to control the content shared on Starlink.
In the case of South Africa, Mr Musk’s country of birth, Starlink was denied a license after failing to meet the requirement to hand over a 30 percent stake to locals.
The latest data from CA shows that after Starlink entered the Kenyan market, the use of satellite Internet has tripled to 4,808 subscriptions in March, from just 1,354 in September last year.
Safaricom currently controls the giant share of the fixed Internet market, with about 37.4 percent of all subscribers, followed by Jamii Telecoms (Faiba) and Wananchi Group (Zuku), which have about 23 percent and 19 percent of the market share, respectively.
