Prospective Starlink customers in Gaborone, Botswana are out of luck. Starting last week around 27 January, Starlink has not been taking on new customers, instead giving them an option to reserve their spot.
Although the Starlink Availability Map doesn’t show Gaborone as “sold out,” customers attempting to purchase equipment and service through the website receive an “out of capacity” message:
“Starlink service is currently at capacity in your area. However, the good news is you can still place a deposit now to reserve your spot on the waitlist and receive a notification as soon as service becomes available again.”
On 28 January, an official Starlink Retailer in Botswana called Sefalana posted the following message on its social pages:
Starlink have reached subscription capacity in Gaborone only.
That means anyone purchasing Starlink in or out of Gaborone will not be able to register and receive signal in Gaborone and surrounding areas like Phakalane as the service is over subscribed and reached its allocated limit for the time being. Starlink is working on increasing capacity for Gaborone.
Registration is open to the rest of the country and Starlink kits are available in our Sefalana stores outside Gaborone.
We will follow up with an update on the matter on advisement from the service provider.
Gaborone joins several other African cities where Starlink has reached capacity, including:
- Zimbabwe: Harare (including surrounding towns) and Bulawayo
- Zambia: Lusaka
- Kenya: Nairobi
- Ghana: Accra
- Nigeria: Lagos, Benin City, Warri, Port Harcourt, and Abuja
One prospective customers told Techzim:
Couldn’t afford to buy the kit in December, but now Gabs is at full capacity. Does Starlink ever add more capacity?
It’s hard to say when the city will have capacity again. When Harare reached capacity in October 2024, the expectation by Zimbabweans was that maybe in January 2025 they’d be able to buy again. It’s February 2025 and service remains unavailable for new subscribers.
