Global satellite internet provider, Starlink, has applied to operate in Zimbabwe, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has confirmed.
Earlier this month, the government of Zimbabwe instructed Starlink to shut down services as it had not been licenced to operate in the country.
Users of the service subsequently received an email from the satellite internet service provider, advising them it had been directed to disable services.
Speaking during a question and answer session on Tuesday at a business function organised by the Ministry of Information Communication Technology (ICTs), Postal and Courier Services on the sidelines of the ongoing 64th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), POTRAZ director-general Gift Machengete said (via The Herald):
Then, why is Starlink not operating right now? The simple answer is Starlink had not applied and we would be foolish to go then and say come and apply, please.
Now they have come to apply and we are in the process of looking at their application.
We are also a regulator, we need to see how we regulate them. We also have to look at consumer and data protection.
But, currently, we are in the process of looking at their application.
He admitted that POTRAZ had instructed Starlink to switch off users in Zimbabwe saying they were breaking the law. Said Machengete:
So, in short, we have not banned them. What we have just done is that those who have been using Starlink terminals were asked to have Starlink switch them off because we cannot allow illegality.
I think they have been switched off and maybe there is some outcry. But, you see those were illegal and they will be regularised when they are licenced.
Let me explain that at POTRAZ we are the licencing authority for telecommunications and we actually have a licencing framework and that framework is a converged framework whereby we check if the technology that you bring is not relevant, it is technology neutral and to reinforce that we already had geostationary satellites.
We already have geostationary satellites licenced so there is no way we would then be blocking Starlink because we are technology-neutral.
To use Starlink, Zimbabweans were mostly buying the kits from unofficial importers of the kits who brought them in from countries where the service is sold legally (like Mozambique, Zambia, Eswatini etc..).
Depending on the seller, the prices would range from about $600 to $1500. Installing the kit is generally easy and to operate it in Zimbabwe, they set their account to a roaming service.
The price of unlimited internet from Starlink with the roaming is about US $38, which customers would pay to the company directly.
Ultimately, the service was popular in Zimbabwe because the price of an unlimited internet package by the country’s internet providers is at least US$140.
That and the fact that Starlink can work anywhere in the country – even the remotest pockets of the country where people there’s no infrastructure for other types of connectivity.
An estimated 5,000 Starlink terminals are believed to have been brought into Zimbabwe by the time POTRAZ blocked the service in the country.
