Satellite Broadband Has An Edge Over GSM Services in Africa

No argument there because the future of consumer telecom services includes satellite: “This growth is uncharacteristic in the sense of its magnitude. Whereas prior satellite service providers have ramped up to anywhere at most between 500,000 to a little bit over a million subscribers. And this has taken, you know, a ten-year period, Starlink’s race to 2 million subscribers has taken only the better part of two years.

“Starlink’s importance to SpaceX overall as a company is imperative. Euroconsult estimates that, optimistically, by the end of 2023, this business of Starlink could represent upwards of 40% of SpaceX’s overall business. This total would be somewhere in excess of $3 billion generated from Starlink”.

CDMA gave wired-telephony heat in Nigeria and prepared NITEL for the big museum. But GSM took down CDMA. Satellite is an existential threat to GSM operators in Nigeria because the regulator is allowing them to go DIRECT to customers (D2C) and that is significant. With the D2C business model, the marginal cost efficiency of satellite broadband will compound over time, and by 2030, GSM operators will lose ground. Yes, they will struggle in rural areas and less densely populated locations

Elon Musk and Space Starlink are setting a new basis of competition and they will take down empires in the telecom space. This is real!

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: ou make a great point about satellite internet companies using a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model. This lets them sell right to customers instead of just selling to other companies.

D2C is what can help satellite compete better over time. When satellite operators own the full customer experience, they make more money per user. This lets them lower costs as they grow.
Older internet companies can’t keep up because they rely on reselling satellite bandwidth.

They don’t control the customer relationship.
It’s like how CDMA wireless competed with landlines. And how GSM beat CDMA. The new technology that sells direct to users eventually wins out.

Satellite internet is still early. But with costs dropping and D2C adoption growing, they are positioned to disrupt current leaders. Exciting to see how satellite will impact internet competition down the road!

Thank for sharing Ndubuisi Ekekwe

My Response: “Older internet companies can’t keep up because they rely on reselling satellite bandwidth.” – you have explained the major difference between satellite generation 1 and the new model. That business model is the reason why Starlink has a promise.

Experts Estimate That Starlink is Well-Positioned to Capture A Big Piece of The Global Market For Consumer Satellite Services

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