Starlink’s high-speed and uncapped satellite internet service is now available in Zambia, hence becoming the sixth country in Africa to get access to the service. Therefore, residents can now place orders for their Starlink kits directly on the company’s website.
The launch of Starlink in Zambia is a significant development for the country’s internet infrastructure. According to the World Bank, only 44% of Zambians have access to the internet, and those who do often face high costs and slow speeds.
Starlink could help bridge the digital divide and provide millions of Zambians with high-speed internet for the first time.
In addition to the benefits for consumers, Starlink could also have a positive impact on Zambia’s economy as the service could attract new businesses and investment to the country, and create jobs in the telecommunications sector.
Starlink explained that the service was currently available in the country using inter-satellite links; therefore, latency could be an intermittent issue.
Users will be able to engage in common Internet activity like email, online shopping, or streaming a movie, but activities like online gaming or video calls may be challenging at times.
Starlink
However, Starlink said the service would improve “dramatically” over the next year and said customers in the region typically measured download speeds up to 120Mbps — impressively high for a satellite service.
In Zambia, the residential Starlink dish and router cost 10,744 Zambian Kwacha (R9,835), while the regular monthly subscription is priced at ZMW771 (R706).
The Flat High-Performance dish — geared towards professional and business users with more demanding broadband requirements — is priced at ZMW50,133.
Users who wish to use the service in other African countries will have to pay ZMW1,000 (R915) per month for regional roaming. Those who want to take their Starlink kit and use it on another continent will have to cough up ZMW3,950 (R3,615).
The launch in Zambia follows Starlink’s entry into Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Malawi in 2023. According to Starlink’s coverage map, it is also scheduled to go live before the end of the year in Angola and Eswatini.
All of South Africa’s remaining neighbors — Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zimbabwe — have estimated rollout dates sometime in 2024.
South Africa’s rollout ETA is still “unknown” due to additional regulatory requirements in the Electronic Communications Act.
The ECA requires that telecoms licensees be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups (HDGs), including black people, women, youth, and people with disabilities.
Although the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) has pointed out that Starlink could easily enter the country by establishing a local subsidiary or using a partner that met the requirements, SpaceX has explained it prioritizes countries that make regulatory approval easier.
The launch in Kenya came just days after the country withdrew a rule that made it compulsory for Big Tech companies to sell 30% of their shares to Kenyans.
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