President William Ruto has backed US billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink’s entry into Kenya amid a petition from Safaricom to reconsider the award of licences to satellite Internet providers.
Dr Ruto told the US-Kenya Business and Investment Roundtable that the entrance of Starlink is in line with government policy of deepening Internet penetration and encouraging competition in the market.
The American firm, riding on the back of one of the world’s richest person with a net worth of $237 billion (Sh30.6 trillion), is betting on lowering Internet costs in a segment dominated by Safaricom, Jamii Telecommunications Limited (JTL) and Zuku.
But Safaricom wants the satellite operators to partner with existing Internet service providers instead of setting up shop as stand-alone operations, arguing that their direct entry to the market poses a danger to network quality of mobile telephony.
“We are trying to expand the digital footprint around the country,” Dr Ruto told the gathering, which convened on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday.
“And that has its own competitive issues. I know I have my CEO for Safaricom here, sometimes he’s not very happy with me for bringing other characters like Elon Musk and others into the space,” he added during the 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 quite ahead, and he’s been doing pretty well I must admit, he’s really upped his game.”
This is Dr Ruto’s first public backing of Musk’s outfit since Safaricom asked the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) in July to re-evaluate its decision to grant independent licences to satellite service providers, warning that such an arrangement could allow illegal connections and harmful interference with mobile networks.
Mr Musk backed President Ruto’s in a dig on Safaricom.
“As the President of Kenya says, Starlink causes local competitors to provide better services,” said the billionaire in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Safaricom wants the satellite service providers to operate as infrastructure providers while giving the operating licence to the existing mobile network operators (MNO).
The government has a 35 percent stake in Safaricom and earned Sh17 billion in dividends from the telco –a position a few analysts thought would convince the State to offer the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm protection.
For the same prices, Safaricom home fibre customers will now access 15 megabytes per second (mbps) up from 10 mbps at Sh2,999; 30mbps up from 20; 80mbps doubling from 40; and 500mbps up from 100mbps.
The telecoms 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 the market since it entered Kenya in July last year.
Kenya is among the few countries in Africa that have allowed Starlink. Others are Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Benin and Eswatini.
But Starlink’s entry in Africa has faced numerous regulatory obstacles in some countries. Several African markets have classified Starlink as ‘illegal,’ within their territories. They include Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Senegal and DRC.
Earlier this year, Cameroon ordered the seizure of Starlink equipment at ports as the provider was not licensed.
Part of the concern by governments in Africa is the need to control the content being shared on Starlink.
In the case of South Africa, Mr Musk’s country of birth, Starlink was denied a licence after it failed to comply with the requirement to cede a 30 percent stake to the locals.
Latest data from the CA reveals that following Starlink’s entry into the Kenyan market, satellite Internet usage has more than tripled to 4,808 subscriptions in March, up 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 enjoy about 23 percent and 19 percent of the market share respectively.
