Uptake of Starlink’s satellite internet in Kenya slowed by 72.9 percent in the three months ended December 2024, compared to the preceding quarter and coinciding with a time when the US firm had suspended sales in five countries on stretched capacity.
Fresh disclosures by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) show that between October and December last year, Starlink netted 2,360 new users compared to 8,723 new subscribers onboarded during the quarter that ended in September.
In November, the firm said it had suspended new subscriptions within Kenya’s capital and the neighbouring counties of Kajiado, Machakos, Kiambu and Murang’a, citing a network overload due to stretched capacity.
Since its entry into the Kenyan market in July 2023 up to September last year, Starlink had witnessed rapid growth in subscriber in a trend that had seen it enter the top 10 list of dominant internet service providers in the country.
As of last December, the multinational held the seventh most-popular fixed data provider, maintaining its market share at 1.1 percent as it was as at close of September.
This marked a shift from a jump witnessed in the quarter to September when Starlink’s market share rose from 0.5 percent in June. An outgrowth of Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s space technology firm SpaceX, Starlink launched its services in Kenya in late July 2023 with a promise to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to remote and previously underserved areas.
This made it ideal for Kenya’s rural settings where traditional internet services are limited or unreliable.
The multinational has, however, faced a series of headwinds in its attempt to wrestle a sizeable share of the market, with existing providers protesting against its operating model which they say poses an interference threat to their connectivity networks.
Safaricom, for instance, wrote to the CA in August last year asking the latter to reconsider Starlink’s entry, arguing that it would allow illegal connections and interference to existing mobile networks unless the American firm partnered with local ISPs.
Safaricom has maintained its firm grip on the country’s fixed internet market, albeit marking a marginal drop from a 36.6 percent share in September to 36.1 percent as of December, followed by Jamii Telecommunications Limited (JTL) whose share also dipped from 24.4 percent to 23.6 percent during the review period.
Wananchi Group-owned Zuku saw its share shrink to 15.4 percent down from 16.8 percent in September.
Only Poa Internet Kenya Limited, Vilcom Network Limited, and Vijiji Connect Limited made market gains during the period, with their respective shares growing from 12.6 percent to 13.8 percent, 1.8 percent to 3.2 percent and 0.6 percent to 0.7 percent.
“Vilcom Network Limited doubled its market share during the reference period following the launch of a new product by the service provider,” noted CA in its latest report.
Recent data from San Francisco-based internet-monitoring firm Meltwater shows that Kenyans are now enjoying up to 18.5 percent faster fixed internet connection speeds, as local data providers revamped their packages to remain competitive against Starlink.
The data shows that the average fixed internet speeds hit a record 11.59 megabytes per second (mbps) in October last year, up from 9.78 mbps in January. Time spent online and engagement with other web-facilitated services have also significantly risen, pointing to a surge in internet usage and related activities in the country.
In September last year, President William Ruto backed the heightened competition sparked by Starlink and other entrants, saying it was pushing local ISPs to improve their services.
“We’re trying to expand the digital footprint around the country and that has its own competitive issues,” Dr Ruto told a gathering at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“I know I have my CEO for Safaricom here, sometimes he’s not very happy with me for bringing other characters like Elon Musk and others into the space. But you see, I keep encouraging Peter (Safaricom CEO) that the competition keeps you quite ahead, and he’s been doing pretty well, I must admit, he’s really upped his game,” he added.
