When we spoke to a source at Potraz last week we learned something that surprised us. Despite Dandemutande and Frampol securing their Starlink Authorised Reseller status, Potraz has so far refused to grant them “clearance” to sell Starlink.
This means that these Starlink Authorised Reseller cannot sell Starlink Services in Zimbabwe. The only companies granted the clearance are Aura and TelOne. And ofcourse Starlink Zimbabwe itself.
When Potraz announced the Starlink Licence approval earlier this month, it also announced a ban on selling of Starlink services in Zimbabwe without Potraz clearance:
It is a condition of the STARLINK Licences that such Agencies, Dealers and ISPs shall be subject to clearance by POTRAZ. This condition applies to both existing and prospective ISPs and Network Operators. The sale or distribution of STARLINK User Terminals without appropriate licensing and clearance is, therefore, an offence punishable by law.
Essentially, Starlink got the license on condition Potraz had the final say on who could be an authorised reseller.
According to a report in The Standard, Potraz has asked these uncleared ISPs to stop telling Zimbabweans they are Starlink Authorised Resellers. And as far as we can tell, they are complying.
The Politicians’ grip on Starlink
This ban essentially gives Potraz the power to exclude Frampol, Dandemumutande, Paratus. Well, not Potraz per se. It’s the politicians that control Potraz that have that power. You probably noticed that it was not POTRAZ that announced the Starlink licence. It was the Minister of ICT. Potraz only announced the license the next day, as if to retweet the minister.
You will also remember that even back in May, it was not Potraz that announced the controversial Starlink licensing. It was the country’s president himself. Potraz didn’t say anything about it, and to this day have not commented on the mess of it all. It was a mess because the president was essentially telling Starlink it would give it a licence, on condition it worked with Wicknell Chivayo’s IMC exclusively. As we now know, Starlink refused.
But Zimbabweans continued to clamour for Starlink and a compromise had to be reached. Which is what we have today – instead of Chivayo, we have Aura, TelOne and Starlink itself. Navigating the licencing in Zimbabwe was so hard for Starlink, the SpaceX executive leading the effort described it as perseverance “through a difficult and complex licensing and activation effort.”
TelOne is a government owned company, and already an ISP. Aura is a private company. The Standard article we linked to above claims Aura is linked to some cabinet ministers and that it has ordered some 6,000 kits destined for tender business with the government.
What Aura says
We contacted Aura Group CEO, Samuelle Dimairho, to comment on this allegation. He denies it and says The Standard is using lies to create content to sell the paper. He explained:
We have a reputation of our own and proven track record and have never been in partnership or affiliated with any cabinet Minster or politician. We have been working on the Starlink project for the past 3 years and have been involved in a broader telecoms and IoT revolution for the past 8 years.
We have done much bigger and far more complex projects in Africa and Asia. One that is in the public domain is Chengetedzai Depository Company. We co-founded Chengetedzai and currently own a large stake.
We asked him how Aura got its “clearance” yet Potraz licensed ISPs are being denied, and he said only Potraz could explain that:
I think Potraz is best placed to answer that question. We have also been in situations where it is also even difficult to understand regulatory bodies and some of the decisions they make but the best to respond to that would be the regulators.
All I can say from our end is that we had been engaging government on this project for a long time and have also been subjected to rigorous assessments and reviews by government.
As a consumer you can still buy direct from Starlink
If you’re reading this an wondering how this affects your ability to buy from Starlink directly, it does not. As a consumer you can still go to stalink.com and order your kit. You will get in about 4 or so weeks.
The Authorised Resellers are there to serve businesses whose needs are usually a bit more complex than you average consumer. Starlink needs distributors on the ground able to help with troubleshooting, payments, designing the networking solutions and other such things. This is were resellers like TelOne and Aura come in.
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If you are struggling with buying Starlink for any reason, 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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