SpaceX’s fast and uncapped satellite Internet service Starlink has officially launched in Zimbabwe. South Africa’s northern neighbour is the...
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SpaceX’s fast and uncapped satellite Internet service Starlink has officially launched in Zimbabwe.
South Africa’s northern neighbour is the 14th African country to get the service, with the most recent other additions being Botswana, South Sudan, and Sierra Leone.Zimbabwean Starlink subscribers, at least those who have not already imported a kit from countries which have supported the service for longer, will have to fork out $350 (R6,248) for the regular Starlink dish and router.
However, the more portable Mini dish with a built-in router built-in can be had for a more affordable $200 (R3,570). That is substantially cheaper than in the US, where it is priced at $599 (R10,693).
According to MyBroadband, they recently tested the more compact dish and found it boasted excellent speeds and latency, similar to the regular kit. We recorded average download speeds over 100Mbps and uploads of around 15Mbps. It could also be suited to users who want a more portable device, which works on the go, even while driving over 100km/h.
As in other countries, Starlink’s delivery fees are likely to vary from region to region. For delivery to Harare, Starlink is charging $23 (R410) for shipping and handling.
The regular residential subscription is priced at $50 per month, converting to roughly R893 at the time of publication. That is roughly in line with fees in other Southern African countries.
Starlink is now officially available from four of South Africa’s six neighbours — with only Lesotho and Namibia yet to launch the service.
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| Starlink in Zimbabwe: Registration, Purchase, Speed, Licensing & Costs |
In September 2023, Zimbabwe’s regulator the Postal & Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) announced that Starlink applied for a license. The regulator would later crack down on unregistered users smuggling in Starlink devices from neighbouring Zambia, warning that they were breaking the law.
In October 2023, some Zimbabwean legislators argued that Starlink’s operating license should be rejected because Musk’s other comapny, X, was being used to allegedly disparage the country’s leadership, including President Emerson Mnangagwa.
According to TechZim, here is the important stuff to know about the Starlink System. All the account information is stored on your antenna. You can change the router and the cable, but changing the antenna equals you getting a new account.
If you do not remember your email account and password used when setting up your account, then your antenna becomes useless and you’ll need to buy a new kit. You need the email and password in order to log in to your account, and losing it is a big deal because Starlink will not tell you what it is if you don’t know it.
Starlink is a product of SpaceX, is an American company and is very different to the local entities you may have dealt with. I say this because of 2 things: They have a robust warranty policy, whereby just about ANYTHING happens to your device, they will replace it no questions asked.
They are big on clamping down on copyright infringement. Downloading torrents will see your account getting shut down, as Starlink are obligated to report you when you do such activity and they don’t want to be part of your illegal shenanigans.
Be very careful who you give your password to and make sure you tell them not to download torrents. You can always do this by installing a third-party router and having a firewall, as Starlink does not have this restriction in-built. - Online Sources
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