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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For those still struggling with buying Starlink due to capacity problems, knowing which bank card to use or just general payment challenges, transferring a kit to Zimbabwe, selecting the right hardware for their needs, installation, accessories, troubleshooting Starlink and other such issues… a local ICT company, Safari Mounts, is helping Zimbabweans navigate Starlink problems with some hand holding. They can be contacted via this Google form and are charging a nominal fee to help. Techzim benefits a referral fee when they help you.
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