By 
Rwanda is giving priority to schools to benefit from the satellite-based internet which will soon to be deployed by satellite internet constellation Starlink, the Rwandan Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire recently revealed.
The pilot project will be in at least 500 schools in Rwanda.
Starlink’s service is scheduled to be up and running in Rwanda by February 22, according to the Minister. Starlink is a satellite network developed by American spacecraft company SpaceX, to provide ‘low-cost’ internet to remote locations.
Early February, the Rwanda Space Agency (RSA) announced that it had issued a license to Starlink, to operate in the country, with its operations due to begin in the first quarter of 2023, before the end of March.
According to the ICT Minister, Starlink will be relatively affordable for Rwanda and the pilot project in schools will allow a test run in Starlink services.
“Among the services we are undertaking, which we agreed upon with Starlink last year [2022], we are going to start with at least 500 schools so that at least such internet will be tested, and distributed there,” she said.
Information from RSA indicates that Starlink’s services are expected to increase the level of broadband competitiveness in the country as end-user services will cost US$44 (a month) for a bandwidth of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps).
For enterprises, the bandwidth can go up to 350 Mbps.
Comments