Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, has experienced a sell-out of its terminals in Harare, Zimbabwe, in less than two months after being granted operational permission.
The Zimbabwean capital joins other African cities — which include Abuja and Lagos in Nigeria, Nairobi in Kenya, Lusaka in Zambia — where the high-speed internet service has sold out, according to a map on Starlink’s website.
The high demand has led to the service marking several areas around Harare as “Sold Out” on their availability map, indicating a longer wait time for potential customers in locations such as Norton, Ruwa, Chitungwiza, Dema, Mazowe, and Nyabira.
The capacity issues have escalated progressively:
- Initially, only high-density areas of Harare like Mbare and Highfields were affected.
- The problem then extended to the entirety of Harare, with an “Expanding Q3 2024” status.
- This was later updated to “Expanding 2025.”
- Currently, many areas around Harare are labeled as “Sold Out.”
The “Sold Out” status seems to be indefinite, a departure from previous updates that allowed users to place deposits for future service. Now, those attempting to sign up in these areas receive a message indicating that Starlink Residential is not available, with an option to sign up for notifications on future availability or to explore the mobile offering, Starlink Roam.
The cessation of deposit acceptance points to a more severe capacity issue. The full list of “Sold Out” areas includes Arcturus, Chitungwiza, parts of Concession, Dema, Epworth, parts of Glendale, Goromonzi, Harare, Juru, Manhenga, Mazowe, Melfort, Norton, Nyabira, and Ruwa.
For residents in these areas, the advice is to sign up for Starlink updates and consider alternative internet service providers such as Econet’s SmartBiz, Liquid, Utande, TelOne, Telco, or others that may offer coverage.
As for the Roam service, which allows usage of Starlink in other regions, it’s not generally recommended for the average user due to its $100 monthly fee and the fact that roaming subscribers do not receive priority service. Additionally, the “Sold Out” status may imply that even roaming service could be unavailable.
William Chui, a representative from a company that provides support for Starlink customers, noted the challenges faced due to congestion. The workaround of registering a service address 5km away is no longer viable as the nearest available cells are now up to 20km away. The congestion has reached a level where Starlink cannot offer roaming packages in these congested areas, requiring customers to register their service address in a less congested part of Zimbabwe and roam from there.
