ELON MUSK CONFIRMS HIS COMPANY WILL DELIVER HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO ZAMBIA FOLLOWING MEETING WITH PRESIDENT HAKAINDE HICHILEMA
Elon Musk, the richest man on earth, this morning confirmed that his company StarLink will provide high-speed internet service to Zambia following President Hakainde Hichilema’s interventions.
Yesterday, President HH announced that he had held a meeting with Starlink Head Mr Chad Gibbs, who heads the firm whose focus is technology, particularly Internet connectivity.
“As you know, we intend to quickly sort out our connectivity as this is the only way we can have a truly functional e-government of the 21st Century. We are working round the clock to ensure that facilities such as technology are put to great use so that jobs and business opportunities can be realised and this was what characterised our conversation with . Additionally we all know that good connectivity will also improve productivity thereby reducing the cost of doing business. While in office, we are ensuring that every opportunity and step we take, is done in the best interest of Zambia.” the president stated.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the high-speed internet service routed through low-Earth orbit is truly available globally. There are currently over 3,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, and SpaceX will continue to add at least a thousand more under its current license from the US Federal Communications Commission. The company has expressed a desire to grow the mega-constellation to as many as 50,000 flying routers.
With the addition of the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, SpaceX says its orbit-based Starlink broadband service now reaches all seven continents. Starlink has been active for a while now in Australia, New Zealand and a number of countries in the Americas and Europe. It was also launched in Ukraine to help locals during the war. Thousands of Starlink receivers have also been sent to Ukraine to keep war-torn regions connected. Musk has also reported that Starlink has managed to resist Russian attempts to jam it.
The service has just recently become active in Africa, starting in Mozambique and Nigeria, and is rolling out by the end of the year in the Philippines to begin making inroads in southeast Asia. Zambia will now be the third country in Africa following Bally’s move.
Earlier, Musk revealed via Twitter that Starlink subscriptions were approaching half a million.
With an estimated net worth of $254 billion as of August 2022, Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg. He is nearly $90 billion ahead of the man in second place, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was ranked at the top for the first time and became the first centibillionaire included in the ranking, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had topped the list 18 of the previous 24 years. In 2022, after topping the list for four years, Bezos was surpassed by Elon Musk.
Elon Reeve Musk FRS is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; angel investor, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.
Elon Musk’s father once owned emerald mines in Zambia and is a South African.
While this is a great initiative, it was already scheduled for Africa with satellites placed in strategic places.
A little background wouldn’t hurt.
Yea, but the significance is the face-to-face meeting between the President and Elon’s key decision-makers. Remember this could serve to pave the path into the much needed investments into our electric vehicle value chain.
That for me is the bigger picture and key takeaway.
AFRICA IS BIG. WHEN AN INVESTOR SAYS HE IS COMING TO INVEST IN AFRICA, IS HE SAYING AM GOING TO INVEST IN ZAMBIA? DID THE INVESTORS SAY THEY WILL START WITH ZAMBIA? SUPPOSE THE INVESTOR SAYS ZAMBIA IS NOT A GOOD BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT? HH IS DOING SOME LOBBYING FOR QUICK INTERNET IN ZAMBIA. LET US APPRECIATE WHAT HH IS DOING WITHOUT INTENTIONALLY DESIRING TO DISCREDIT HIS EFFORT USING SKILLFUL TACTICS. INSTEAD OF US REPSONDING TO AND JOINING HIS EFFORT WE ARE BUSY SCORNING NOBLE EFFORT.
Who is intentionally desiring anything? Thr facts of the story remain this was in the works LONG before any conversation with HH. When you show me an signed agreement or MOU with Zambia as a resultof this conversation, I will happily give HH all the credit for expediting a deal already in the works. Nothing here shows that.
Guys, you are intelligent people. Use your brains and don’t be so close minded to be against FACTS.
Your hostility is typical of misinformed and insecure people. Take a serious chill pill and learn to express yourself like an adult.
Free advice.