Several low income residential areas in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, have run out of Starlink capacity just a week after the service went live the country. This demonstrates that the Starlink services is affordable to many people considered low income, or at least that stay in low income neighbourhoods.
Zimbabweans on Twitter and in the comments to articles we have written here on Techzim were reporting that they could not order kits as their area was said to have run out of capacity on the Starlink website. When Starlink has no capacity, one can only reserve a kit and wait for space to open up.
Techzim did a test of several areas in Zimbabwe, most of them in Harare and noticed that most high density residential areas had run out of capacity. These include Mbare, Budiriro, Dzivarasekwa, Kuwadzana, Warren Park, Glen Norah, Zindoga, Arcadia, Highfields.
Areas we checked that still had capacity include Ruwa, Marlborough, Southerton
Avenues, and Mt Pleasant. One high income area, Avondale, was at capacity however. All areas out of Harare that we checked, all had capacity.
But even in the areas that had reached capacity, several tries could result in some capacity being available, a sign that either capacity had increased, or some people that had reserved their kits, had opted out after failing to raise the full amount for kit, shipping and subscription. We have been reliably informed that a lot of kit reservations were expiring today, Saturday.
Starlink Capacity Workarounds
Some local businesses are helping people implement work arounds to the capacity problem. For example some are using a different address close enough to their residential area that still have capacity.
Another way to get capacity, as we observed today, is to just keep trying. Eventually some capacity seems to open up.
Difficulties of serving low income neighbourhoods for incumbents
Low income residential areas have been notoriously difficult to serve for incumbent internet providers, especially those connecting customers to fibre. Fibre infrastructure is expensive to install and operators have struggled to create a model and packages that would ensure they make enough money in a reasonable time to justify the spend on infrastructure.
But even for providers connecting customers via wireless technologies like LTE. They often could not justify expanding their network rapidly enough to cater for demand for several reasons. Executives often complained that they could not raise prices enough to cater additional capacity given the high cost of powering existing infrastructure and the regulators unwillingness to approve price increases, even as margin was eaten away by exchanges losses.
Zimbabweans in these areas where therefore generally left without reliable high speed fixed internet. Most had to rely on 4G provided through their phones and 4G MiFi devices by mobile operators.
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43 comments
Zimpricecheck.com reported this long ago, twice in 2 of their articles, especially on the mini kit, why didn’t you follow up on it, you are too late on the scene, pull up your socks
how much is the nominal fee? can i pay the nominal fee in zig?
US$40, and yes, ZiG accepted. Do fill out the form
Well starlink better plan ahead coz econet will be ku mbare . Luckily i still use telone like those 20mbs are to good to pass on a 350-400 kit . Well i guess 🤷 i guess if area supports telone go for it if not then starlinkk .like 95%of my neighbours already had telone wifi so why bother with the ur at max capacity. This reminds me of mk1 beta always saying server is full
20mbps is that 4g or fiber, cause zol fiber which I have is 50mbps, it increased from 10mbps long ago, and the experience is far better than telone, telone is known for it’s snail movement
Fibre
Most people get telone fiber these days, not for speed, but for the low prices
Dude the african servers for NRS are neglected ..either way What platform do you play my psn id is Moonyah98
Xbox gamer tag is T_Ccoki
Wat games u play maybe we can play . Also make sure u turn on crossplatform to see the tag
T_ccoki for xbox . U can sea
Yah, people run for starlink, leaving more bandwidth and speed for us at Liquid Telecom, one thing to note here is that you can torrent with liquid telecom, and local ISPs but not with Starlink!, that is a big downside for me since I torrent, perhaps a VPN maybe used, but who wants snail speed when you torrenting and browsing, big downside guys👎
With the right VPN you wont notice the speed change
Mbare, Fiyo, B/dale/ Mabvuku are now the same. The determinant is not affluence but the generational appetite for data. All generation Y, Z and gen Alpha people take data as a basic necessity wherever they live. Just like food, clothing, shelter, water etc. Data is now at the base of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for these generations.
You better understand your generational classification for you to understand you cultural construct and preferences.
See the baby boomers and generation X madhalas are still in charge but their market analysis is based on entient class structures. So data rinodiwa ku B/dale, ku Fiyo haridiwi! No sense.
Munoona Varume (It seems hapana vakadzi panapa. Pakaipa kkkk). Technology ine inonzi Quantum Change. It changes everything very fast and in very big and diverse ways. 2000s, we were upbeat about boosters; 2010s, fibre optics; now , constellations.
Ma boosters Aya very soon (in say two years) they will be eye sores. Anongonyungudiswa. Iam not sure what they will do with fiber optic cable which is all over the world even under the sea. Cause ma China auya hot. Ma constellations avo akavandisa . Tichabhadhara $1 unlimited fup kkkkk.
Remember SIM card re netone used to cost the same price ne mombe. Ngoma ndiyo ndiyo.
Rubbish
Porn production boom
I can notice vakadzi varipo pano. You took the bait hook ,line and sinker.
Only innscor knows that there is money to be made in high density surburbs
When are you coming to chiredzi
We are waiting for you as sugarcane farmers
As long as you have an address Starlink system determines it can deliver to and a card that can pay, there’s nothing to stop you from ordering directly from the website.
The last part is very true I stay in a high density surbub in BYO and I have been trying to get some internet service from local ISPs since last year.
1. Telone (at capacity, queue of applicants from September 2022)
2. Liquid (fibre too far, Base stations full)
3. Powertel (fibre too far)
4. Telco (not yet in my area)
5. Utande (not yet in the area, vsat insanely expensive).
Starlink is the only option for me personally because econet bundles ma1.
This is what the naysayers to StarLink are forgetting. Apart from local FNOs (Fibre Network Operators) & MNOs showing us the middle finger 🖕 despite them having capacity but taking us for a ride we have resolved to let them go hang.
I have a simple question, when they say area has run out of capacity in terms numbers, does it mean 5000+ users on that base station or satellite please explain better
It means the areas mentioned on this post have reached 2000 users for the satellite covering that area.If its a base station same thing
I now suspect Starlink could be overated.
“Havana Simbi dzebasa”. They don’t have the capacity compared to DSTV. It’s just a disruption in the market. DSTV has been around for over 2 decades and still taking more users.
Satellite or satellites for that area can beam the signal at a specific capacity, once all starlink online orders reach the capacity it can beam the network signal at, they stop online orders, cause the capacity will be full or filled, until more satellites are launched to create capacity
need to purchase star link
I can notice vakadzi varipo pano. You took the bait hook ,line and sinker. Sorry if you took offense. Iam female ufunge lol
So in simple terms starlink is not that superior kana isina ma satellites to serve people. So why the hype. Eventually techzim news dze starlink will be boring . Just like what they did with the Multichoice stories people are still subscribing to DStv zve ma netflix and online chakadaro vanhu Havana time nazvo. Maybe Starlink is testing in the various areas
I feel Starlink has the capacity since they are able to increase slots in areas that are deemed “capacity full”. In my own opinion, superiority will be felt on the smoothness of service delivery. I can tell you my story with Telone fibre. For all the time that i had it, i can’t remember a period when we had it for like 2mnths straight with no downtime. My email is full of tickets from Telone opening cases for the faults that I reported. Its one thing am running away. I now want to pay and simply enjoy good service, we don’t want much from ISPs.
The author did not fully explain the term capacity.
Is it no of units allocated to an area or thar it has to do with download or upload speeds for the devices .
It never rains but pours for the poor folks.
All it means is existing Internet providers will continue to fleece customers as there are no alternatives.
Do we have capacity here in Mutoko
Find out
Hope i find you well. I received my starlink mini nezuro and guys musanyeberwe, chino fire zvekurevesa and you don’t need anyone to do it for you. They way they have designed the setup, you can do it yourself unless kana uchingotyawo technology. Zviri zve speed Starlink huchi guys.
Zindoga ndoipi manje. I low income here waterfalls?
Very true and well said.
The only thing that is constant in this era is change.
How can I.change my Starlink account from roaming (Zambia) to local (Zimbabwe)
It think what’s clear is that current operators left money on the table by siting regulators unwillingness to approve tariffs as an excuse. Their models were wrong perhaps their payback period was too short. Starlink is going to make loads of money and local business may better discard this low density high density classification and just take this as another lucrative market. Ask Delta Corporation.
Econet yaitivharira panze inofunga kuti hatina mari gamertag
starscourge732 XboxS|X
Hi, I love your tech articles, you really simplify tech issues for laymen like me.
I am keen to know how a group of people living at a flat would be able to use Starlink, from what needs to be bought and the costs, making sure that everyone in the building gets network etc. Your insight would be appreciated
They are still ridiculous high. Across the border, 50 kwacha which is like $2 will get u 120 minutes and 200 sms for a month. $15 will get u 60-80 gig data.
Besides downloads of movies books, files and all what other uses we can explore with Starlink and how exploited have they been, how was their lives before Starlink
How effective is it at live streaming etc