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Sierra Leone now joins Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Mauritius as African nations connected to Starlink satellite service. Internet access is expected to increase in Sierra Leone as the West African nation has now become only the 5th African country to issue a license to Starlink, the satellite broadband service from SpaceX.This is a huge step forward in achieving the goal of universal connectivity across the country.
Sierra Leone now joins Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Mauritius as African nations connected to Starlink satellite service. Internet access is expected to increase in Sierra Leone as the West African nation has now become only the 5th African country to issue a license to Starlink, the satellite broadband service from SpaceX. This is a huge step forward in achieving the goal of universal connectivity across the country.
Starlink is set to begin full operations with 100 percent access to its network to be available in the coming weeks. Sierra Leone has one of the least access to the internet in the world. Internet penetration stood at 32.4 percent with 2.67 million users. This means that 67.6 percent of locals in the country do not use the Internet.
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On the flip side, internet users in the country increased by 12.5 percent between 2021 and 2022. In simple terms, there were 296,000 new internet users in the country between 2021 and 2022. Early in 2023, there was widespread condemnation after mobile operators in the country increased data charges by over 100 percent.
At the beginning of 2023, Sierra Leone had an internet penetration rate of only 21.2%, leaving approximately 6.85 million people without internet access. Additionally, the country’s median fixed internet connection speed stands at 11.60 megabytes per second (Mbps), considerably lower than the global average of 58 Mbps.
