👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – A Circle in Flutterwave

Using satellite Internet can feel like having a VIP pass because while other broadband users are lamenting about network outages due to fibre cuts or cable theft, all you need to do is point the dish at the sky and enjoy the Internet. 

Well… about that: Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite Internet service, has stopped accepting new customers in seven Kenyan counties, including Nairobi, Kwale, Murang’a, and Mombasa, because it has run out of available network capacity in those areas. New customers are now asked to pay a deposit and join a waiting list when they try to complete an order.

Explain like I’m new here: When Starlink entered Kenya in 2023, its hardware cost KES 89,000 ($689). Today, the dish costs less than half of that, and customers can even rent one for KES 1,950 ($15) monthly. One could say they were aggressively looking for users, and it worked because Starlink grew from just over 8,000 subscribers to almost 25,000 in nine months. 

But with great power comes great responsibility. And Starlink can’t seem to handle all that traffic right now. So, it shut its door to new orders. It’s ironic for the average upwardly-mobile tech bro in Nairobi using Starlink. Escaping the clutches of bad fibre Internet doesn’t mean Starlink cannot happen to you.

Is this déjà vu? Starlink first stopped accepting new customers in Nairobi in November 2024 after the city exceeded available satellite capacity. The freeze lasted for about six months, leaving some customers who had already bought Starlink kits waiting for activation. In Nigeria, metro cities such as Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt also faced similar network limitations when access to…