Starlink Removes Roam Service From African Countries

Techzim is reliably told that Starlink has removed the Roam Service from African countries where its operational. Starlink has not made any announcements about the move, so it’s not yet clear why.

Currently, attempting to sign up for the Roam service plan on the Starlink website from an African country gives off the error:

Starlink Roam is not available in your area. Please select a valid country where Starlink Roam can be purchased and shipped.

The list of “valid countries” that’s then offered does not include a single African country.

The Roam package was generally used by people whose countries have not licensed Starlink yet.

For example, before Starlink was licensed in Zimbabwe, Zimbabweans would buy Starlink kits from Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Eswatini and register them there on a Regional Roam package. The price of the Roam package was about US $40 for several months, before Starlink increased it to $100 in August.

Since Starlink is not yet licensed in South Africa, some South Africans have been travelling to Zimbabwe to and buying kits that they then put on Roam. Effective immediately, they can no longer do this.

It is possible Starlink have removed Roam so this does not continue.

Our assumption is that this is not affecting those that had already subscribed. They will likely still get their 60-day grace period. But we’re not sure – sometimes when Starlink makes a move that affects those that have already paid, they just refund. We will update as we get more information.

Suspension of Roaming accounts in Zimbabwe

This week Starlink shut down roaming customers in Zimbabwe who had exceeded their 60-dfay grace period. This has affected a lot of its customers as it’s estimated about 5,000 Zimbabwean accounts were on Roam before Starlink got its license in Zimbabwe.

Starlink Roam subscribers who had been shut down have to transfer their kits to a Zimbabwean address to be able to use Starlink.