Starlink, a satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has announced an increase in the prices for its monthly services in Nigeria.

The company announced in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the standard package (residential) monthly subscription was increased to N75,000, from N38,000 per month — an increase of 97.37 percent.

The cost of the Starlink hardware was increased from N440,000 to N590,000.

Starlink said the price of the mobile-regional roam unlimited is now N167,000 and the mobile-global roam service is N717,000.

The company blamed the increase on excessive levels of inflation.

Starlink said the increase will take effect immediately for new customers, while current users will start paying the new price from October 31, 2024.

“As a current customer, your monthly service price will increase in one month, beginning 31 October 2024. For new customers, the price increase is effective immediately,” the statement said.

On November 20, 2023, Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovations and digital economy, asked Musk to create a maintenance programme for Starlink in Nigeria.

Tijani made the request in a post on X, saying that providing a certified installer for Starlink devices and “hardware startups to produce repeater boxes locally” would go a long way in creating thousands of jobs in the country.