Increased adoption and awareness of Satellite Internet should worry not just traditional internet service providers, but also the consumers of their services. While things seem to be going smoothly in the first worlds, following back-to-back launching of SpaceX’s Starlinks across specific locales, the Africa continent seems to be not accommodated into any recent plans of this Orbital Technology. SpaceX has launched over 4780 Starlinks Satellites into the orbit, and so far, none of these launches is targeted at the African market.
Despite the existence of other Satellite Internet firms, SpaceX is on the lead of this innovation, and though they had stated their plans to bring the technology to South Africa in the first quarter of 2022, nothing more has been heard of it.
In the years to come, we will surely see increased adoption of Satellite internet, owning to it’s higher security, wider coverage and availability. It is a matter of time before security and privacy conscious entities initiate a convenient migration to use of Satellite Internet.
But while these innovations go on, none of the leading firms seem excited to explore the African market. Why?
Why are Satellite Internet Firms Not Excited About Exploring the African Market?
Africa is the second most populous continent, with about 600 million Internet users, or about 27% of the World total internet users. With this metric, we may assume that the market will be favorably to Satellite internet. Well, maybe not! Apart from population, a lot of other factors must also be considered in apportioning importance and profit returnability to the region. Africa is one of the poorest continents by GDP, only slightly richer than Oceania. So, though the services of these Satellite Internet firms may be needed, affordability on behalf of the local consumers must also be considered.
What this Means for the Continent
While we await these foreign innovations to get to Africa, the local entrepreneurs must see the opportunity in this. The locals must explore the possibilities around Satellite internet and find ways it can be beneficial to the region. Either in the form of new or existing enterprises, if Satellite internet is going to be the next boom, the locals must also seek ways of developing their own domestic Satellite Internet providers. These domestic entities will function based on the local’s conveniences, thus saving the high cost of foreign service provisions. A local provider will outsource production and service running using local resources and hence, they won’t feel the intimidating heaviness of the US dollar against their local currency.
Conclusion
Due to the sophistication of the African Market, providers of satellite internet seem to be on an extra meticulous tread on how they bring the services to the region. Of course businesses run on capitals with the end of either profit or loss, no matter how humane their services are, so, if Africa cannot develop a domestic satellite internet provider, then the provision of such services shall be fated on the plans of foreign providers.
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Great blog! I am loving it!! Will come back again. I am taking your feeds also
Howdy! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be fantastic if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Sorry for the late response, I am on WordPress. That is after many years of using Google’s blogger platform. WordPress is perfect, you just have to get the suitable template.