Nigerians resident in its three major cities, Lagos, Abuja, and Port-Harcourt can no longer order Starlink terminals as the device is ‘sold out’ in the areas.
Other areas where Starlink has been sold out in Nigeria also include Benin City in Edo State and Warri in Delta State. This is according to the availability map on the company’s website.
Entering any address from any of the five cities to place an order also returned with non-availability message.
“Starlink Residential is not available in your area. Enter your email below to be notified about future availability and product updates, or if Starlink is active in your market, visit our Roam page to order our mobile offering,” the response when trying to order for an address in Lagos reads.
While new sign-ups are put on hold in those areas, this does not in any way affect existing users.
Nigerians in other parts of the country, excluding the sold-out areas, can still order the kits.
High demand for Starlink
Demand for Starlink services in Nigeria has soared since the Space X-linked company officially launched in the country in January last year.
However, Nairametrics learned that the rush for Starlink is not only in Nigeria as the company’s terminals are currently sold out in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare, less than two months after receiving permission from authorities to operate in the southern African nation.
According to a Bloomberg report, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are the only two African nations where Starlink terminals have sold out.
- This development comes amid an ongoing tussle in Nigeria over oversubscription price increments.
- On Friday, Starlink announced the suspension of an increment it announced in late September after the country’s telecom regulator chastised it for not getting approval as required by the law.
- Starlink had on the last day of September announced a 97% price increase for its monthly subscription from N38,000 to N75,000.
- For new users, the company also increased the Starlink kits (hardware) by 34% from N440,000 to N590,000.
Starlink’s growing embrace 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 Q4 2023, Starlink had become the third-largest ISP by customer number in Nigeria with 23,897 customers to its credit.
Many local ISPs that have been in operation in Nigeria for several years are currently having less than that number of customers.