Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe POTRAZ) has said Elon Musk has not approached the regulator for licencing Starlink, a SpaceX project providing internet all over the globe.
This comes amid media reports suggesting that Starlink was coming to Zimbabwe at an unspecified time in 2023.
An official at POTRAZ told Pindula News that the regulator has no comment on the case adding that they were only seeing reports in the media. The official spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity:
Starlink has not approached POTRAZ for a licence so we don’t know their intentions yet.
The official then referred this reporter to the Director General of POTRAZ, Dr Gift Kallisto Machengete, for an official response.
We, however, could not get a comment as his phone was not being answered.
Starlink works in the same way as VSAT in that you buy a piece of equipment that faces the sky and connects you to the internet via a satellite above you in space, according to Techzim.
Starlink is another satellite-based internet service provider just like Zodsat, Utande, and Telco. The only difference is that all VSAT providers in Zimbabwe are using a 3rd party satellite provider, predominantly Eutelsat and Avanti.
Starlink on the other hand is actually launching its own satellites into space which in essence means they are involved in the process end to end.
You can get 50 to 250Mbps on Starlink Internet and Starlink RV (Mobile home) and 150 to 500Mbps on Starlink Business with all 3 variants having unlimited internet. The fastest VSAT speed you can get from Zimbabwean providers is 25Mbps with upload speeds going as high as 6Mbps.
Starlink Internet is US$110 per month, Starlink RV is US$135 per month and Starlink Business is US$500 per month.
Highest-spec VSAT packages available in Zimbabwe:
It’s US$599 for Starlink Internet and Starlink RV and US$2 500 for Starlink Business, excluding shipping and duty.
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