The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), is proposing a change to the existing Submarine Cable Landing Rights (SCLR) license and the Satellite Landing Rights (SLR) license. CA wants the two to be merged into a new “Landing Rights License”. This new license aims for technology neutrality, allowing investors to land signals using any technology.
“The significant differences in initial Licence fees, annual operating fees, and deployed technologies among these Licence categories are inconsistent with the technology-neutrality principle of the ULF Framework,” CA states.
The proposed Landing Rights License will have an application fee of Kshs. 5,000, an initial license fee of Kshs. 15 million, and an annual operating fee of Kshs. 4 million or 0.4% of annual gross turnover, whichever is higher. The license will be valid for a term of 15 years.
Notably, the 15-year license fee is currently USD 12,500 (Ksh1, 618,750 million) and the proposal to raise it to Kshs 15 million represents an 826.64% increase. Previously, the license was granted with a one-time fee; however, the new license is valid for 15 years and then requires renewal.
This steep fee may prove a huge hurdle for Satellite Internet service providers in Kenya. Currently, Starlink which is the largest in terms of market share, only has 8,063 subscribers. This is just 0.5% of fixed data subscribers in Kenya. It’s highly unlikely that a small player like NTvsat will be able to pay this fee given the small size of the country’s satellite internet market.
Satellite Ground Stations
Further, CA claims the expanded scope of the Landing Rights License will accommodate investors seeking to leverage Kenya’s strategic location by establishing and operating three key types of infrastructure: terrestrial cables that transit Kenya en route to neighbouring countries; satellite hubs exclusively serving clients outside of Kenya; and satellite services extending beyond traditional communication applications to encompass areas such as telemetry, tracking and control (TTC) subsystems, space research, among others.
Read: Breaking! Cheaper Starlink Mini Now Available in Kenya
Subject to operating in at least three Kenyan counties, licensees will be permitted to establish satellite systems, including hub facilities, and offer satellite services.
These new proposals if passed can open the way for Satellite internet providers to open and operate ground stations. These stations are essential for the transmission of data between the satellites and the internet backbone on the ground.
Essentially, they act as intermediaries, receiving data from the satellites and routing it to the appropriate internet networks, and vice versa. Elon Musk’s Starlink has been considering establishing a ground station in Kenya, but the absence of regulatory provisions has been a significant obstacle.
