Despite the company’s prior assertion that Starlink was already available on all seven continents, SpaceX’s internet service is now operational in Nigeria.
Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service, now has a presence on the African continent, announcing yesterday that Starlink is now accessible in Nigeria.
SpaceX said the Starlink connection to Nigeria was operational yesterday through Twitter. According to Starlink’s service map, certain African nations, such as Zambia, Tanzania, and Morocco, will get service by the end of this year, while others, such as Ghana and Namibia, will not have service until 2024.
“We’ve done it again. [SpaceX] thank you for having me in your headquarters in the United States in December 2022 to finish the logistics for the deployment,” Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ali Pantami tweeted.
Despite declaring the milestone last year, SpaceX now has a live connection to every continent on the planet thanks to Starlink’s presence in Africa. “Starlink is presently on all seven continents!” announced the business on September 14, 2022.
SpaceX appears to have rejoiced soon, since the corporation only obtained permission to connect Nigeria and Mozambique to Starlink at the time, with service slated to begin in both nations between July and September 2022.
The license to connect Malawi is to be issued in November. In terms of Starlink connectivity in those African countries, it obviously did not occur in 2022. “Starlink is now accessible in Nigeria—the first African country to receive service!” SpaceX tweeted on Monday.
SpaceX did not react promptly to our request for comment. Regardless, as SpaceX declared during the webcast of today’s Falcon 9 Starlink flight, Starlink is now available in 46 nations and 56 markets worldwide.
The news comes after SpaceX successfully began delivering service to McMurdo Station, an Antarctic scientific research facility, in September. Starlink also began linking isolated field sites in Antarctica earlier this month. These links were made possible via an optical laser network that connects Starlink satellites. Instead of communicating with ground stations, the lasers transfer data between satellites in the Starlink constellation, which has connected remote portions of Canada, Australia, and Antarctica to Starlink.
With 49 satellites deployed today, SpaceX is continuing its efforts on deploying a full-fledged Starlink constellation. Over 3,700 Starlink satellites are currently in low Earth orbit, with SpaceX planning to launch 29,988 next-generation Starlink satellites.
