Why is Starlink “Sold Out” in Murombedzi?

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Zowa in Murombedzi

Starlink recently disabled its Roaming service in Africa, leading to a strange phenomenon: the “Sold Out” area on their availability map, initially concentrated around Harare, suddenly expanded to cover a 200km radius, including the sparsely populated rural town of Murombedzi.

This is puzzling because it seems unlikely that a rural area would reach capacity before larger cities like Bulawayo or Mutare

This isn’t limited to Murombedzi. Many areas around Harare, including Marondera, Bindura, and Macheke, are now also showing as “Sold Out.” Similar patterns are emerging in other African countries like Zambia and Kenya, suggesting a link to the Roaming service cancellation.

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Starlink hasn’t explained these changes, leaving us to speculate. One theory is that Harare users, previously relying on Roaming, had their accounts suspended after the 60-day limit. When they tried to switch to a Zimbabwean plan, they found Harare was already full. They may have then tried registering with addresses on the outskirts, gradually expanding the “Sold Out” zone outward until it reached Murombedzi.

However, registering with a Murombedzi address doesn’t mean the service will work in Harare. A technician who assists Starlink users has told Techzim he is helping many people who fell into this trap, needing to re-register their kits through a Starlink Authorized Reseller.

Hopefully, as users correct their registrations, these areas will become available again, allowing actual residents to sign up for Starlink.

24 comments

  1. Cde Ernesto che guveira

    Starlink might not have anticipated a high turnover in Africa and i think they where caught unprepared. They must create more capacity in Africa because this is where its services is mostly needed.

    1. Anonymous

      I don’t think it is about too much demand, the reason why Techzim came up with this article

      Mask is managing a particular situation

      Mrehwa Sold out before Bulawayo twn or Mutare is not possible

      It looks they are correcting something and order will prevail

      I also feel that does to do with Politicians who may want to fully make money out of starlink as Resellers

      If Harare is full now to Murombedzi how is Chivhayo going to make money with his IMC Communications?

  2. Murambwi

    These are the results of bathing mu bucket since birth. Harare people are selfish and not very smart. How does buying a kit in murombedzi then putting it on roaming benefit the marginalised people of that small area. Thanks Elon for shutting down roaming and restoring sanity.

    1. Anonymous

      Lol

    2. Anonymous

      Here, I see you can learn something here: Ad hominem, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

  3. Shakespeare Mugwara

    Thank you for this information. It did not make sense that Nyabira would be said “Sold Out”

  4. Jackson tete

    Can srarlink be fitted in gokwe rural areas

    1. Anonymous

      No Gokwe is too far, you cannot have Starlink there.

      1. Anonymous

        😂😂😂Poison

      2. Chasura

        Ah 🤣🤣

      3. ShakaJay

        🤣🤣🤣🤣

  5. Anonymous

    I agree that those still excited by Harare are selfish and self centered. Mbinga tiriko kwa Murombedzi. Takawanda. Mbinga dziri kumaruzevha dzakawandisa kudarika Harare. Usati ini kana ndaneta ne Harare ndokusiya uchiroja imba yangu, iwe woti “Ko kwa Murombedzi Starlink vanodii?”

    1. Anonymous

      Zvirikuzi Murombedzi yazara sei before Bulawayo and Mutare

      Auna kutukwa Ba iwe musoro Bhangu?

      1. Anonymous

        You are proving to be clueless on what sold out means. Let me simplify for you. If there are 100 oranges in Harare and they are sold out. Then there are 20 oranges in Murombedzi then they get sold out. Should there be any conspiracy theories comparing the two locations? The issue is, was the network capacity the same? Those not sold out in BYO and Mutare. fall in the same comparison framework. Saka musoro bangu apa ndiani?

  6. Anonymous

    Folks, calm down and take the feet off the arbitrary speculation pedals. You all don’t know what’s going on at the Starlink side. There is no need for the foul-mouthed rhetorics, when you don’t know or understand what is going on.

  7. Kubs

    There is money everywhere BUT where it should be.

  8. Rear Admiral Maverick

    “If you list the attributes of a frigate and then list the attributes of [an
    improved LCS], we’re actually more capable than a normal frigate is,”
    Mabus told reporters after his remarks to the Surface Navy Association
    conference. “They don’t look like traditional Navy ships sometimes, and
    I think that’s one of the issues that traditionalists have, but if you look
    at missions, if you look at what a frigate is supposed to be able to do,
    that’s what this ship does.”

  9. where are you

    where are the local ISP in an this there is clearly unserviced demand in USD… their business models have to reduce margins and work on high volumes. the starlink is case in point

  10. Man In Black🎱

    Varume veku Psy Ops. Mamukasei? Isutamuka kana mukawo.

    Basa se basa asi pleasure make sure it unites our people and makes them smarter.

  11. rutendorwashe@gmail.com

    Herald Features, Thursday 14 March 2013

    Rutendo Mapfumo
    Features Correspondent

    As the sun goes down and gets imperceptibly swallowed into the womb of mother earth, another day is about to leave its history behind, for no day passes without leaving its own history.

    Makanda Village in Hwange is teeming with people engaging in activities meant for wrapping up the day.

    A young man draws the frolicking herd of cattle into the kraal on the periphery of the homestead. Young boys pull the goats home from where they have been tethered the whole day.

    The father – the head of the home – watches with authority and monitors the activities. Like ants, women on the other hand move to and from in preparation for meals which will satisfy everyone especially after such a long day under scorching sun farming.

    A long bath in Mutesi River is perfect to wash away all the sweat of the day and cooling off the high temperatures.

    Oblivious of the creatures found in the river, Mr Amos Mukanda (81) never thought that his short bath in Mutesi River would change his life forever. After all, he had been bathing there ever since he was a boy….

  12. Honestish Mechanics🔧

    Thank you and big up to those who do no desert and runaway, even zvakaoma kudaro sezvinotaurwa nevamwe. We still saw the fly past and defence forces day, mesning there is Jet A1, pilots, spare parts and ground crews. We work with what we have.

    Remember Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory in management. It states that the lack of food at work does not demotivate workers necessarily, and neither does it motivate. Another example, a clean workplace does not motivate workers, neither does a dirty one demotivate workers, but its nice to have, its loving your neighbour. A company or an organisation creates its own culture, but what remains vital to the success of the organisation is the people, the team work. The best teams in the world seldom waste a player on the bench. Coaches get fired for such reasons. All the fans will be saying whenever Eric Bailey plays we are strong at the back, but we go at buy a defender past his prime, now the City belongs to Haaland.

    Again, having Starlink at work won’t necessarily motivate workers to work harder. However, the lack of it may demotivate them. Lets look at why. If your connections is slow, an upload that should take 5mins, takes 1hour, during that time you cannot do other work until it finishes. You are likely to become frustrated, bored or angry, because you have other things to do and you want to meet the 3pm SADC deadline because its a Friday. This which make people inefficient are likely to demotivate because vanhu vanodada nemabasa avo that want to do a good job, and the data at work is stopping them. You can have the biggest company in the world with the largest turnover, not in money terms but in hiring and replacement, constant training, reduced experience.

    Why go for x264 video compression? . Well, x265 compression makes your CPU hurt, not all devices have the power and enough cores to decompress x265 video while running windows in the background. Even most budget phones would struggle, its heavy compression. An x264 file can be 800MB, while a similar 720p x265 file can be 150MB. So when x266 compression comes out perhaps a 720p file would be 30MB. This would make some computers unable to play the file at 30Fps. So it means at work an i9 does not motivate workers, but an i3 can demotivate workers, because its slow. Maibata?

    When we were taught these things at school, it was not suppose to remain in the book after 📚 passing your exam. The exam tested if you knew it, but life tests if you can apply it, that’s why life is a teacher in its own right, some people are smart without formal education, zvamwe kungoshairwa mukana, vamwe nhenhera dzakatorerwa pfuma nehama, what would a child know, only what they are told and see. To compete with organisations at a world class scale, we have to come up to a world class standard as well an have pride in a job well done. If you do a job right, customers keep coming in droves, that one guy you cheat tells another 10 who then tell another 10.

  13. 666

    Trust

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