Elon Musk’s SpaceX has confirmed Starlink is coming to Zimbabwe this year. South Africa’s date is still unknown
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Loading... - John Charo
- 26 Jan 2023
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For those that are unaware, Starlink is a SpaceX project providing internet all over the globe. It 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.
Starlink service will be available in Zimbabwe in 2023 with Zimbabwean neighbors Zambia and Mozambique getting it by the end of Q2 2023. Surprisingly there is no word on availability in South Africa yet and My Broadband reports that the delay could be related to a condition that to obtain an operating license in their borders, the business needs to have at least 30% black ownership.
How does it compare to VSAT in Zimbabwe?
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. Of course and some point the Starlink satellites will need to connect to a ground station to efficiently route the data, something regular VSAT also does.
Speed
In terms of speeds, 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. For comparison, the fastest VSAT speed you can get from Zimbabwean providers is 25Mbps with upload speeds going as high as 6Mbps. Read More…
