3 months on, new Starlink orders are still unprocessed in Lagos, Abuja

Three months after Starlink halted new orders in major Nigerian locations, the service is still unavailable. 

Recall that in late September, the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet network provider stopped accepting new orders in some of Nigeria’s busiest urban areas, including Lagos and Abuja, after reaching full capacity.

At that time, new orders were halted in several areas, including Lekki, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Ikeja, Surulere, and parts of Abuja. However, new checks on January 12, 2025, show that the issue has now spread across Lagos and Abuja. In these areas, Starlink’s website now displays “Sold Out” for prospective users.

The message reads:

“We are currently at capacity and unable to provide service in this area. Please check back in at a later time.”

In turn, prospective customers are now being directed to a waitlist and asked to pay a deposit. This action places them on the list to receive notifications when slots are reopened. 

“Starlink service is currently at capacity in your area. However, the good news is you can still place a deposit now to reserve your spot on the waitlist and receive a notification as soon as service becomes available again,” a statement on the website reads.

While new orders are still unavailable in these areas, customers who got their kits weeks before the suspension are unable to use them due to activation and capacity issues faced by the company. 

A customer, lamenting on social media, asked: “For those of us that have bought starlink for close to 2 months now and can’t activate due to ‘No Capacity’, What’s our hope?”

Starlink customers who fall under this can do nothing but keep checking their accounts for updates. Hopefully, the activation will be available upon the upgrade of Starlink’s capacity in those areas. 

Also Read: Uganda Election: Internet blackout looms after Starlink’s service restriction.

Starlink’s capacity issue

This isn’t the first time the company has faced capacity issues in Nigeria.

In November 2024, Starlink suspended sales of kits and activations in Nigeria after facing issues relating to bandwidth shortages and unresolved tariff adjustment disputes with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The company only resumed nationwide sales in July 2025 before entering another phase of restriction two months later.

For Starlink, restriction measures are necessary to maintain quality service for other users when it reaches optimal capacity in a particular location. Once an area reaches its designed capacity, it becomes impossible to accept new customers.

Meanwhile, Starlink’s prices have increased by almost 100% since its 2022 launch in Nigeria. Subscription fees increased from about N38,000 per month to N57,000 in 2025, attributed to the inflationary pressures and continuous depreciation of the naira against the dollar.

The ‘Standard kit’ increased from N440,000 to N590,000, while the ‘Min kit’ now sells for N318,000.

Following its tariff increase, the company was sanctioned by the communications regulator in October 2024. The NCC noted that Starlink breached Sections 108 and 111 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, which mandate telecom operators to seek and obtain tariff approvals from the NCC before altering any fees for their services.

The dispute forced the satellite company to roll back to N38,000 before finally settling for N57,000 after the 50% telecoms tariff hike. 

Need for more upgrades 

The consistent capacity issues signal an increasing demand and usage of Starlink’s service in Nigeria. It also reveals how the service has continued to overstretch in Africa’s most populous country, where internet subscribers have been faced with unreliable networks.

With its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite offering, Starlink’s internet speed in Nigeria averages around 49.6 Mbps download, though slower than in other African nations due to high user numbers causing network congestion. 

Industry data shows that Starlink has 66,523 subscribers in Nigeria as of Q2 2025, only second to Spectranet among Nigeria’s ISPs.

However, Starlink has yet to provide any specific period for when sales and activation will resume in affected areas.

“Please note that we cannot provide an estimated timeframe for service availability, but our teams are working as quickly as possible to add more capacity to the constellation so we can continue to expand coverage for more customers around the world,” the company said on its platform.

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