The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has engaged a delegation from SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk, on modalities for bringing the company’s satellite-based broadband services to Nigeria.
Speaking while receiving the delegation in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, stated that the commission is interested in balancing healthy competition with entry of disruptive technologies.
This move, according to him, will ensure sustainable telecoms industry growth and development in Nigeria
It was gathered that SpaceX is in the process of launching a low-earth orbiting (LOE) constellation of satellites to provide low latency, high bandwidths Internet to all corners of the globe and has identified Nigeria as a critical market.
It was learnt that SpaceX has been in discussion with NCC virtually over the past several months to begin the process of pursuing all necessary licenses to bring Starlink, its satellite-based broadband services to Nigeria.
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Having made substantial progress in the discussion, the Commission granted SpaceX’s request for a face-to-face discussion to gain better insights on the prospects of their proposal.
the team was led by SpaceX’s Starlink Market Access Director for Africa, Ryan Goodnight, and supported by the company’s consultant, Levin Born.
The NCC and SpaceX team deliberated on plans, expectations, licensing requests and deployment phases at the meeting.
After the presentation by SpaceX team, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Ubale Maska, who represented the EVC, said NCC will work on necessary modalities to ensure there is healthy competition in the industry in view of emerging technologies in telecoms ecosystem.
