Elon Musk’s internet service company, Starlink, has increased the price of its hardware by 112% in Nigeria.
The Starlink internet router which was being sold for N378,000 until recently now goes for N800,000. However, the monthly subscription for the internet service remains unchanged at N38,000 per month.
While Starlink has not offered any explanation for the increment, Nairametrics observed that this may have been influenced by the declining value of the Naira against the dollar.
The value of the Nigerian currency has been on a steady decline since the beginning of this year, falling from N907 to a dollar in December 2023 to N1,602 to a dollar as of March 7, 2024, at the official market.
Starlink is gaining traction in Nigeria
Despite its higher costs compared with local ISPs, Starlink, which announced its presence in Nigeria in January 2023 had sparked high interest among Nigerians who were eager to change their service providers.
- The ubiquitous status of its satellite service also encourages people in areas with poor internet networks to go for Starlink.
- According to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Starlink is now one of the leading ISPs in Nigeria in terms of customer numbers. As of Q3 2023, Starlink Nigeria’s customer base stood at 11,207.
- Many local ISPs that have been in operation in Nigeria for several years are currently having less than that number of customers.
What you should know
Although Starlink officially announced its presence in Nigeria in January last year, Nigerians had been pre-ordering its hardware since 2022. The company, which initially quoted its prices in dollars at $600 for the hardware and $43 for the subscription, changed to naira upon its official announcement.
- At that point, Starlink’s hardware and monthly subscription costs stood at N268,584 and N19,260, however, that was at the official dollar exchange rate, which stood at around N450/$1 at the time.
- With the unification of the exchange rate, the prices of hardware and subscriptions also shot up to N378,000 and N38,000 as the Naira value continued to fall.
- Between October and November last year, Starlink slashed its hardware costs by 21% as it pushed to gain more share of the Nigerian ISP market.
- With the price slash, Starlink’s hardware was sold for N299,500. It, however, reverted to the normal price of N378,000 on November 16.