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| A young man accessing the internet |
Kenyans will soon enjoy high-speed internet connectivity from Starlink at half the price of the recently announced Standard package. An illustration photo of a person accessing internet via the phone. According to Starlink, the 50 gigabytes (GB) monthly data bundle from Starlink costs KSh 1,300. How much will Kenyans pay for Starlink Mini? A section of Kenyans reached out to Elon Musk via the X platform, his social media company, requesting another offer. Social media influencer Amerix and East African Data Handlers CEO George Njoroge convinced Musk that more Kenyans will subscribe to Starlink if he makes it more affordable compared to the country’s broadband service providers. In his response, Musk said he will launch the Starlink Mini package later this year (2024) at half the price of the standard package. “Starlink Mini will be about half the standard terminal price and available later this year,” said Musk. This could translate to KSh 650 per month for Kenyans who subscribe to the Starlink Mini package. Why Kenyans want another Starlink offer from Musk This followed an internet outage that occurred on Tuesday, June 25, during the anti-Finance Bill 2024 protests. Safaricom and Airtel, which offer internet connectivity via broadband optic fibres and cables, linked the disruption to an outage in subsea cables. However, Kenyans accused the companies of a staged outage, claiming that they collaborated with the government to disrupt connectivity during the protests. Is Starlink cheaper than Safaricom or Airtel Internet? The new Standard Package cost is less than half of Airtel’s data plan for the same package (KSh 3,000), and Safaricom’s monthly package of 45GB, which costs KSh 2,500. If Starlink Mini is launched, the company will provide stiff competition to Safaricom and other internet service providers in Kenya. Currently, Naivas Supermarket retails the kit at a discounted offer of more than half the price of the kit in its select Nairobi branches. The retail store urged its customers to hurry and buy the kit while stock lasts at the selected stores.
by Wycliffe Musalia