From 9.78 bps in January to 11.59 Mbps in October 2024, Kenyan fixed Internet speeds grew by 18.5 percent as a result of Elon Musk’s Starlink launch in July 2023, which enhanced competition among regional providers.
In response, market leader Safaricom increased bandwidth and released 1,000 Mbps speeds for the first time. This was according to Kenya’s Business Daily reports published on Friday.
Read also: Starlink launches services in Cape Verde, its 18th African market
Significant market changes due to heightened competition
Significant market changes have been brought about by the increasing competition: by June, the number of subscribers with 100–1000 Mbps connections had grown by 53 percent to 15,226; by the same month, the total number of fixed Internet users had climbed by 13 percent to 1.5 million.
By June, Starlink had 8,324 customers, up from 405 in 2023, and a 0.5 percent market share.
With Internet usage rising from 32.7 percent to 40.8 percent of the population and daily online time increasing from 4 hours 17 minutes to 4 hours 49 minutes, the competitive environment has boosted consumer welfare without causing price hikes.
Enthusiasm mixed with scepticism
The general attitude among Kenyan consumers is a mixture of enthusiasm and scepticism aimed mostly at the market’s leading operator, building on the spike in internet speeds in Kenya sparked by Starlink’s introduction.
Read also: Namibia orders Musk’s Starlink to shut down
The dominant story, which is supported by extensive online debates and social media activity, raises concerns about the rationale and timing of these upgrades: Why was this capability withheld if it had always existed?
A key component of Kenya’s Vision 2030, which aims to make the country a middle-income one, has historically been the expansion of internet infrastructure, fuelled by projects like the SEACOM and TEAMS undersea cables in 2009.
A more resilient and technologically advanced economy that is ready for substantial involvement in the global digital marketplace and has the potential to spur innovation and socioeconomic inclusion in the region could be the driving force behind this current wave, which is being driven by private-sector competition like Starlink.