I remain convinced that the best days of terrestrial broadband providers like GSM companies are behind them, as Elon Musk goes all out with an asymmetric competitive playbook: “Elon Musk’s SpaceX has renewed its push for approval to significantly expand the Starlink satellite constellation, seeking permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch nearly 30,000 more satellites into low-Earth orbit.”
If they do approve these satellites, he could crash the cost of his data by up to a factor of 4, and by 2027, his cost model will be cheaper than whatever your local mobile provider is giving you. And because he has the satellite-to-cellphone capabilities already in place, a massive disintermediation is loading.
I understand that our regulators and policymakers are always sleeping, but they cannot afford to do that on this matter. If Africa loses all the core taxes from the telecom sector to satellite providers which are not indigenous, our economies could collapse. So, they need to immediately put a tax regime at the African Union level on how to handle this new vector.
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Understand that the solution is not for MTN, Glo or Safaricom going satellite. That is a waste of time. Why? None has the engineering capacity to design, make and launch satellites, and can only rely on external providers. But for Starlink, it is end-to-end in-house, and because of that, the Starlink price model could be superior on multiples. This is why this is an existential threat to many telcos in terrestrial space!
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A true democracy is what favours the people, and not what enriches the government. We keep misrepresenting what democracy should be. Governments become more corrupt as they rake in more money. If government will lose tax receipts when satellites communication becomes mainstream, will the citizens lose or gain more? We are never conscious about the latter, but always counting what a criminal enterprise euphemistically called government should gain.
The power and money should be with the people and never government, so that whatever project or policy a government wants to enact, it must negotiate with the people, the true power holders. Wherever the government is very powerful, the people will always suffer. It’s the great battle going on in the USA, the only place in the world where The People have semblance of actual power, but that unique and beautiful model is under threat, partly because of corruption and adulteration by people who never understood the fundamental principles of The Great Republic.
Our focus should be on whether proliferation of Starlink satellites will empower the people more than the government, if the verdict returns in affirmative, then it’s a great win for the people. Never make your government rich.