Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to introduce its satellite-based broadband internet services to Nigeria. NCC said in a press statement.
The press statement disclosed that SpaceX has been in discussion with NCC virtually over the past several months to begin the process of pursuing all necessary licenses to bring Starlink, its satellite-based broadband services to Nigeria.
Having made substantial progress in the discussion, the Commission granted SpaceX’s request for a face-to-face discussion to gain better insights on the prospects of their proposal.
Led by SpaceX’s Starlink Market Access Director for Africa, Ryan Goodnight, and supported by the company’s consultant, Levin Born, the company provided an overview of its plans, expectations, licensing requests, and deployment phases during the meeting.
After the presentation by the SpaceX team, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Ubale Maska, who stood in for the EVC Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said NCC will work on necessary modalities to ensure that it balances the need for healthy competition vis-a-vis the entry of new technologies, in order to protect all industry stakeholders.
“As the regulator of a highly dynamic sector in Nigeria, the Commission is conscious of the need to ensure that our regulatory actions are anchored on national interest.
“We have listened to your presentation and we will review it vis-à-vis our regulatory direction of ensuring effective and a sustainable telecoms ecosystem where a licensee’s operational model does not dampen healthy competition among other licensees,” Maska told the SpaceX delegation.
SpaceX is in the process of launching a low-earth orbiting (LOE) constellation of satellites to provide low latency, high bandwidths Internet to all corners of the globe and has identified Nigeria as a critical market.
