Starlink Opens Up Capacity in Harare and Bulawayo for Businesses

Following several weeks of being sold out completely, Starlink has opened up capacity in the congested areas of Harare, its surrounding towns and Bulawayo. With one caveat – it’s only for business packages, and Zimbabweans have to buy through Starlink Authorises Resellers – TelOne and Aura.

The Authorised resellers had not been selling Starlink in the congested areas these past several weeks but recently announced that they are now accepting customers again. They are also helping individuals who were on roaming to transfer to local addresses within the sold out areas.

This is significant progress for business in Harare and Bulawayo that had found themselves stuck because of the congestion.

For individuals looking to use Starlink at home the issue of having to get a business package will be a deal-breaker. In the congested areas, TelOne for example, is not selling the lowest-priced package that Starlink offers. The cheapest you can buy now is the $160 package.

This is also the lowest-priced package available to those transferring Roaming kits to these sold out areas.

That 40GB Priority package is off the table right now. Customers can only buy the 1TB Priority package. And instead of paying the $101 that Starlink charges, customers have to fork out at least $160 – that is after factoring in TelOne’s markup and Zim taxes.

It’s a dealbreaker because the whole point of migrating to Starlink is to get reliable unlimited internet for $50 or less. At $160 a month, there are other options to consider at such as Econet’s SmartBiz or Utande’s StartMax and SuperMax (where available).

Can I just buy directly from Starlink.com?

We checked today, and it seems buying a business package for Harare and Bulawayo directly from Starlink.com is possible too, and that the 40GB Priority package is available. You don’t get the “Starlink is at Capacity” message that you get when you attempt a Residential order on the site.

It’s still not clear though if the order will go through immediately. So if you or someone you know has bought a Starlink business package for Harare on starlink.com recently and it got delivered in reasonable time please do let us know so we help spread the word.

At $160, those in areas that have fibre can get an unlimited package delivering much faster speeds and shorter latency. But the reality is that the sold-out in Zimbabwe is quite huge now – stretching from Mvurwi through Harare CBD all the way to Wedza – and 90% of that area doesn’t have fibre.