TelOne, one of the two largest fixed internet providers in Zimbabwe, has announced that it is now a Starlink Authorised Reseller.
TelOne shared the news on its social media handles today:
To all our valued Clients and Stakeholders.
Please be advised that TelOne is now on officially authorized Starlink Reseller.
This exciting development expands our range of services that enable us lo better serve you with modern and efficient connectivity solutions. The Startink satellite internet solution is designed to deliver high speed, low latency internet access including Me most remote ports of the country.
TelOne is committed to providing connectivity across Zimbabwe and beyond. The appointment of TelOne as an authorized Startink reseller enhances our ability to achieve this goal.
The move follows hard on the heels of an announcement by Aura on Monday. . In just the past two weeks, there seems to be a frenzy of telecoms companies vying to be recognized as “THE Starlink reseller.”
TelOne is a different ballgame altogether though. It has massive distribution capacity that it can leverage, and this matters a lot for a service as popular as Starlink is becoming. And it’s not just its own capacity it can bring to bear – there’s that of other government companies that it can leverage too – NetOne and Zimpost primarily. If it plays it well, TelOne can become the ‘goto Starlink distributor’ in Zimbabwe.
TelOne is a different ballgame altogether, though. It has massive distribution capacity that it can leverage, and this matters a lot for a service that’s gaining commodity traction in Zimbabwe. And it’s not just its own capacity it can bring to bear – there’s that of other government companies that it can leverage too – NetOne and Zimpost primarily. If it plays it well, TelOne can become the ‘go-to Starlink distributor’ in Zimbabwe.
Where are Liquid and Econet?
Zimbabwe’s fixed internet market has two major players; TelOne and Liquid – counting subscriber numbers that is. You can read the Potraz quarterly regulator reports for the details.
TelOne has the huge DSL numbers and has subscribers on other technologies as well, like Fixed LTE, WiMax, and so on. Liquid has the fiber numbers and subscribers on other tech.
What has us dumbfounded is that Liquid and Econet are strangely silent in all this Starlink frenzy. Yes, Econet is the trenches fighting, and trying new things. But they are doing so as a competitor and not getting in on Starlink distribution, so that as they lose some direct customers, they gain them on a Starlink distribution business. And maybe still upsell them on the other products they offer.
The Econet group and sister companies are usually first in announcing such moves. And of all the internet providers in Zimbabwe, Liquid and Econet are the ones that have made significant moves from just providing access to the internet to being digital solutions companies.
Econet have for years now made several moves into; content (Kwese), Fintech (EcoCash & Steward), on-demand economy (Vaya), a super app (Sasai) and even some forays into enabling an online gaming ecosystem. They have not always succeeded, but they clearly knew access alone was not enough. Liquid has its data centre business, cloud services, it’s partnerships with Microsoft, cyber security companies and the list goes on.
So yes, it doesn’t make sense that the biggest connectivity shift in Zimbabwe since Econet itself in the 90s, is something they didn’t see or make a move on.
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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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