I think we the Africans and the Asians must appreciate the fact that Internet or call it satelite companies are fast competing to bridge the technological divide, between the global north and the global south, by to providing fast and affordable broadband to communities around the world.

According Researches there are about 37 percent of the world population who either currently unserved or underserved by traditional internet and communications options. which is very unbelievable.

So for companies like Starlink and Amazon coming uo with this initiative, I think it is an applaudable thing.

And with the Initiative of Elon Musk and his partners; Kimball Musk and Gwynil Shotwell to produce Starlink in 2015, the goals are on the Midway to achievement.
Let me first talk about Starlink before I go to Kuiper, because Jeff Bedos the owner of Kuiper and the Amazon Kuiper Project Manager Rajeev Badyal are still trying hard to make Amazon’s dream, of becoming a major rival and player in the new space race a reality.
We are only expectant of the wonders that Kuiper would do, we have not seen the result beyond Redmond in Washington. But it is a good thing for the world population that Billions of people around the world would have reliable access to broadband, and those who had been wallowing in Poor internet connectivity will now have means to rescue the selves out of limited access to modern communications, education, health services, and other important resources, which had deprived them of economic advantage for long.
The new space race will also serve a wide range of customers, including schools, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and others operating in places without reliable connectivity.Why I am been more particular and appreciative of the Starlink is that it services are already available with over 3000 satellites in the orbits and over 400,000 global subscribers as well as well structured Ground Stations, which is physical location on earth that communicates with satellites in orbit. the efficiency of its services in transmitting data from user terminals to the public internet. Although we have other Traditional satellite internet providers like Viasat and HughesNet that use geosynchronous orbit, at an altitude of 22,000 miles above the earth. This distance renders their services unusable for online gaming and many other latency-priority internet tasks

gigabyte per seconds is a big and amazing thing. customers can now enjoy internet gaming, video calls and other activities at the fullest and high definition streaming
.
Elon Musk Space X is investing big into his concept of a constellation of internet satellites orbiting Earth. the Planned investment ranging from $20 to $30 billion in Starlink to offer full global coverage.
it is very interesting that Amazon has a team of more than 1,000 world-class engineers, programmers, and support personnel helping deliver on the vision for Project Kuiper. Team members joined from many different industries, such as space and aerospace, wireless technology, and computer networking to get the dream delivered by 2026, but 2026 seems a little bit far compared to what Starlink must have made in terms of market exploit before the full arrival of Kuiper. it means that Amazon would need to do extra work by making its service more effective than Starlink when it comes.

the world awaits the 2024 earliest test running of Kuiper.

For somebody like me who is an African, the competition among tech firms, internet service providers is a good news. it makes companies try good hard to please their customers.

My fear for traditional Telecom and data providers in countries like Nigeria is that this would affect their businesses as people begin to know.

the rate in data charge in Nigeria is just too much but with the two alternative offered to Nigerians for payment channels to order its hardware, these Telcos may soon find thselves folding up similar. N19, 260 for service and N268,584 for hardware

Starlink, at the weekend, said Nigerians could use either Payday or Barter, which are platforms that allow people to create virtual dollar cards and fund them with naira.

Starlink is a satellite Internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 48 countries. It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023.

SpaceX’s Starlink went live in Nigeria on January 31, 2023. The firm had tweeted to announce its operations in the country: “Starlink is now available in Nigeria – the first African country to receive service.”

According to industry analysts, the Payday or Barter options might have come because of the inability of many Nigerians to complete their orders after getting to the payment stage.

With the suspension of international transactions on naira cards, only those who have dollar cards can make payments for Starlink, even though the price is quoted in naira.

A notice to that effect reads: “Lagos, Nigeria, order now to reserve your Starlink. Starlink expects to expand in 2023. You will receive a notification once your Starlink is ready to ship. Prices are based on the official rate. For naira payments, please use Payday, Barter, or similar. N19, 260 for service and N268,584 for hardware