Local ISPs can capitalise on Starlink’s struggles with oversubscriptions and poor performance

Leonard Sengere Avatar
Fibre, Telco, ZOL, TelOne, compensation, outage, internet

The honeymoon period for Starlink is well and truly over. The service was launched in the country, with thousands using it and having mixed experiences.

Just last week, we spoke to two Starlink users who were dissatisfied. One described how the service was unusable in the city center of Harare, where he wanted to use it.

That said, he was complaining of 50 Mbps and occasional temporary disruptions. The specifics of his complaints didn’t sound that bad, to be honest.

Another user, a woman from the suburbs, also voiced dissatisfaction with the service. She didn’t go into detail, but her concerns seemed to echo what many have expressed on social media.

There appeared to be no rhyme or reason as to who gets a poor experience and who receives a good one. Yes, many, if not most, users are happy with their service.

The explanation seems to be that there is a pecking order, with some users receiving priority over others. The hierarchy is Residential, followed by Global and Priority Roam, with Mobile Roam users last.

It is these Mobile Roam users who are hardest hit, a consequence of their workaround to access the service before its official launch.

It makes sense that Starlink would prioritize those registered in the area over those who are roaming.

So, as users officially registered in Zimbabwe, roaming users began experiencing worsening service because they were never intended to use Starlink in that manner.

An opportunity for local ISPs

This Starlink “mess” is an answered prayer for local ISPs, and they should capitalize on it. Starlink was never meant to compete with fibre and mobile broadband, yet the fact that Zimbabweans in urban areas are flocking to the service reflects poorly on local ISPs.

Starlink may eventually improve its capacity and capture a few thousand high-value customers from local ISPs.

However, if those customers receive reliable service at reasonable prices from local ISPs before Starlink’s capacity improves, they won’t switch. Some might, but the more rational ones probably won’t.

There are really only three areas to compete on: speed, reliability, and cost. Everything else is fluff, but different people prioritize these factors differently.

Starlink disrupted the market on price and speed, to some extent. Reliability, however, is another matter.

Reliability

The honest truth is that in urban areas where mobile broadband and fibre are available, no one should need Starlink. These two options are (or should be) more reliable than satellite internet.

We experience occasional fibre cuts or mobile network disruptions, which reflect poorly on local ISPs. At one point, these disruptions were frequent, but network upgrades, especially on Econet’s network, seem to have improved reliability.

Local ISPs should promote their better reliability, especially during the rainy season—if, indeed, they are more reliable.

Note that Starlink might not be the best for video calls. Globally, users report mixed results, with some claiming it’s unusable and others experiencing minor call drops around once an hour on average.

Speed

Starlink can reach crazy high speeds, but so can fibre and even LTE. Realistically, 10 Mbps is sufficient for the majority of users. However, with Starlink offering speeds from 20 Mbps up to the hundreds, local ISPs need to respond if they have the capacity.

We saw Liquid boost speeds on its most affordable packages to 50 Mbps, which is more than enough. If you need higher speeds, you should expect to pay for them.

Econet SmartBiz’s cheapest package is capped at 5 Mbps. I’ve been using it for months, and it’s adequate. However, the experience suffers with multiple users, as expected.

Netflix recommends a minimum of 5 Mbps to stream HD video. With SmartBiz, you get about 4.7 Mbps at best, so streaming can be challenging. The problem worsens with multiple users.

Although I find it usable with multiple users (as long as no one is streaming video), SmartBiz could benefit from a higher base speed to retain users who might be tempted by faster alternatives.

As I said, 10 Mbps is a good baseline, and few would be tempted to switch to a potentially less reliable service just for an extra 10 Mbps.

Cost

Frankly, cost is the main reason people are excited about Starlink. So, I’m concerned when I hear ISP employees emphasizing their fibre or mobile broadband services’ reliability.

The reality is that Zimbabweans are trying to stretch their dollar as far as possible. A cheaper service with slightly less reliability is often a trade they’re willing to make.

If you ask Zimbabweans whether they’d prefer a $50 service with a minor drop once a month or a $30 service with a minor drop every hour, most would choose the cheaper one.

This applies to individuals and small businesses—and even some medium-sized businesses.

Local ISPs and price

Powertel’s decision to match Starlink’s $30 price was smart. However, it might not be enough since Starlink still has hype on its side. Powertel may need to sweeten the deal further, even if not by lowering the price.

This is why I think Econet could maintain the 5 Mbps cap but price it at $30 to compete with Starlink. A 10 Mbps option could then be priced at $45.

Once users sign up now, during Starlink’s oversubscription period, few will be tempted to switch back later. I say this because I’ve had a very positive experience with SmartBiz, and if there were no savings to be made by choosing Starlink, I doubt many would switch in the future.

Liquid is sticking to its $99 fibre package, likely because most of its target market consists of businesses that require fibre’s reliability and thus won’t be drawn to Starlink.

That may be true, but it would mean Liquid has no ambitions to serve the general public. I guess Liquid fibre isn’t available widely enough to justify a price war with Starlink.

However, this could mean Liquid will lose some high-net-worth clients who don’t mind the occasional five-second interruption on Starlink. It seems Liquid is willing to accept that loss.

The iron is hot

Now is the ideal time for local ISPs to win over users from Starlink. The service has faced early challenges and is oversubscribed. The public is highly aware and interested in unlimited internet packages, and local ISPs can capitalize on this while Starlink cannot.

We’ll see how local ISPs respond. Let’s hope they aren’t complacent, assuming Starlink is no longer a threat because it quickly reached capacity in Harare and a few other areas.

Econet has been testing some intriguing packages, but we’re yet to see the final products from these efforts. There have been some complaints, which we’ll address later. However, it’s a step in the right direction.

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13 comments

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  1. Always Off Topic

    Dude you are preaching at the wall. The local ISPs had plenty opportunity to implement all this before Starlink came in, instead they stiffened their necks, and played hard ball. I have said it before, all this was because of the Portraz led cartel. Now, due to greed, ironically, Portraz has had to give up their cozy cartel. And the ISP’s have been left exposed. But it also begs the question, what have ISP’s been doing? With all this demand available, Why has no one taken the risk to meet all this demand? It took someone on the other side of the planet to reveal these opportunities. What are those suits up to?

  2. greed

    Leonard you wasting your time with local business.they out to get every dollar they can for least effort possible.the fact that ppl years on zol.just switched over in heartbeart to starlink summarises their dissatisfaction. also the fact the it’s over subscribed in 46 days means that the demand is there and ppl are spending USD 50…they should surely cater for this and provide similar package and speed even if they charged 60…they would get subscribers…but alas greed has taken over and will cause their eventual.downfall

    1. Tendai Samukange

      Fibre to Ghettoes? Will this ever happen in Zimbabwe? It appears every ISP or broadband company in Zimbabwe sees zero need for Fibre in places like Granary, Dzivarasekwa or Glenview. The best a few have done is offer a very basic WiFi service.

  3. Ok

    Smartbiz in Kadoma is a waste of time. Its so so slow 🐌 600kb/s.

    1. Tobi

      He’s overating that package as if it’s top notch.Speed are soo slow even netflix he mentioned is unusable at hd qualities.The stated 5mbps is actually less than 1mps on the real ground.

  4. Misti 4 Stars

    Local ISPs huchi pasina nyuchi. Mazai asina jongwe.

    George Smith Patton Junior adz adzoka, makamutamba rough, he warned you, Reincarnation.

    Even in hell we fight, for we are marines. In Avatar I wouldn’t be Jake. I would be the crazy Colonel.

    Oscar. King of Scotland, Forrest not Gump.

    [10/31, 19:34] Dzidzai: An army without tanks is like a lobster without claws. George Smith Patton Jr 3rd
    [10/31, 19:40] Dzidzai: Grand Cross of Zimbabwe. 🥷🏾🦞🎖️….and the Lions in their den are shaking as they watch him approach.
    [10/31, 19:46] Dzidzai: Operation Overlord. Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword. 🇩🇪🇨🇵🇬🇧🇨🇦🇷🇺
    [10/31, 19:47] Dzidzai: 6 June 1944
    [10/31, 19:49] Dzidzai: General Cowboy🪖
    [10/31, 19:51] Dzidzai: 1 August 1944. Operation Cobra. Brittany
    [10/31, 19:53] Dzidzai: Siegfried Line. Maginot Line.
    [10/31, 19:54] Dzidzai: Battle of the buldge.
    [10/31, 20:03] Dzidzai: Telegram: I have conquered Trier with only two divisions. What should I do now. Return the town to the Germans? 🪖⚔️

  5. VW Bora⚽

    Tarisana aripa divi pako, umovhunza kuti urikuinvester muna Mwari here. Mwari anoda vana vake vafare, kana Starlink ichivafadza, chakaipa chinyi?

    ECONOMY AND WAR IN THE THIRD REICH, 1933-1944
    This official statistical source provides rare, detailed data on the
    German economic situation during the Third Reich up to and
    throughout World War II. Consisting of Monatliche Nachweise-ber den
    Auswartigen Handel Deutschlands (January 1933-June 1939); Der
    Aussenhandel Deutschlands Monatliche Nachweise (July 1939); and
    Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel Deutschlands (August 1939-1944)
    Date Range: 1933-1944
    Content: 30,506 images
    Source Library: London School of Economics and Political Science
    Detailed Description:
    When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of close
    to 30%. The economic policies of the Third Reich were in the beginning the brainchildren
    of Hjalmar Schacht, who assumed office as president of the central bank under Hitler in
    1933, and became finance minister in the following year. Schacht was one of the few finance
    ministers to take advantage of the freedom provided by the end of the gold standard to keep
    interest rates low and government budget deficits high, with massive public works funded by
    large budget deficits. The consequence was an extremely rapid decline in unemployment
    —the most rapid decline in unemployment in any country during the Great Depression.
    Eventually this Keynesian economic policy was supplemented by the boost to demand
    provided by rearmament and swelling military spending.
    Hjalmar Schacht was replaced in 1937 by Hermann Goering when he resigned. Goering
    introduced the four year plan whose main aim was to make Germany self-sufficient to fight
    a war within four years. Under Goering imports were slashed. Wages and prices were
    controlled—under penalty of being sent to a concentration camp. Dividends were restricted to
    six percent on book capital. And strategic goals to be reached at all costs were declared: the
    construction of synthetic rubber plants, more steel plants, automatic textile factories.
    While the strict state intervention into the economy, and the massive rearmament policy,
    almost led to full employment during the 1930s, real wages in Germany dropped by roughly
    25% between 1933 and 1938. Trade unions were abolished, as well as collective bargaining
    and the right to strike. In place of ordinary profit incentive to guide investment, investment

  6. Cobra iComms

    ….was guided through regulation to accord with needs of the State. Government financing
    eventually came to dominate the investment process, which the proportion of private
    securities issued falling from over half of the total in 1933 and 1934 to approximately 10
    percent in 1935-1938. Heavy taxes on profits limited self-financing of firms.
    The largest firms were mostly exempt from taxes on profits, however government control of
    these were extensive.
    Another part of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with the goal being to
    expand the 100,000-strong German army into a force of millions under the Four-Year Plan.
    The war came and although the Four-Year Plan technically expired in 1940, Hermann Göring
    had built up a power base that effectively controlled all German economic and production
    matters by this point in time. In 1942 the growing burdens of the war and the death of Todt
    saw the economy move to a full war economy under Albert Speer.
    This publication is based these economic publications: Monatliche Nachweise-ber
    den Auswartigen Handel Deutschlands (January 1933-June 1939); Der Aussenhandel
    Deutschlands Monatliche Nachweise (July 1939); and Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel
    Deutschlands (August 1939-1944). These publications illustrate a number of major topics,
    including: the importance of German trade with Eastern Europe; effect of new trade treaties
    with Southeastern European states concluded in 1934 and 1935; Germany’s economic
    offensive beginning in1934; growth of a “command economy” and the requirements of the
    Rearmament Program; balance of payments problem; and the defeat of “the traditionalists”
    with the dismissal of Schacht and Neurath and the appointment of Ribbentrop.
    Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel Deutschlands is particularly important as it provides a
    thorough breakdown of German foreign trade by commodity, volume and value on a monthly
    basis. The December issue of each year gives a final listing of annual figures.
    Sources:
    DeLong, J. Bradford, “Slouching Towards Utopia?: The Economic History of the Twentieth
    Century, XV. Nazis and Soviets,” webpage, University of California at Berkeley and NBER,
    February 1997
    Milward, Alan S., War, Economy and Society, 1939-1945, Berkeley: University of California
    Press, 1980
    Overy, R. J., The Nazi Economic Recovery 1932-1938, Second Edition, Cambridge:
    Cambridge University Press, 1996
    Overy, R. J., War and Economy in the Third Reich, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
    Temin, Peter, Economic History Review, New Series 44, No.4, November 1991, 573-593
    Publisher’s Note: This collection comprises, in its entirety, the Primary Source Media
    microfilm collection entitled Statistics of the Third Reich Analyzed, 1933-1944.⚔️

  7. February 1972 Movement

    US Tactics in Vietnam
    Lieutenant Colonel Zeb B. Bradford, Jr., United States Army
    THE long-term results of our efforts in Vietnam are not yet discernible, and the conduct
    of the war is a subject of dispute. This may cause all of us to learn the wrong lessons
    from that difficult conflict and to ignore some of the things we have done reasonably well.
    There is a tendency on the part of many to feel that we in the Army have gone about the
    whole thing wrong, even at the tactical level. While we have certainly made many mistakes,
    a knowledgeable appraisal will result in a more valid judgment.

  8. Rufaro Stadium aka RNMS

    VIETNAM
    A rather common and important criticism
    is that we should have attempted to defeat
    the enemy in Vietnam on his own terms as a
    guerrilla. A leading exponent of this school
    of thought, and a distinguished soldier, is
    Colonel David H. Hackworth:
    …the most important lesson to be drawn
    from the war in Vietnam is that a lightly
    equipped, poorly supplied guerrilla army
    cannot easily be defeated by the world’s
    most powerful and sophisticated army, using
    conventional tactics. To defeat the guerrilla,
    we must become guerrillas. Every insurgent
    tactic must be copied and employed against
    the insurgent
    …American forces must enter the
    guerrilla’s lair as hunters, employing skill,
    stealth, enterprise and cunning….1
    This strong indictment of our approach to
    the war bears a striking resemblance to the
    opinion expressed by Bernard B. Fall as to
    why the French lost to the Vietminh:
    1 Colonel David H. Hackworth, “A Distant Challenge,”
    Birmingham Publishing Co., Birmingham, Ala., 1968.
    In the monsoon jungles of Southeast
    Asia, there is no cheap substitute for the
    most expensive commodity of them all—
    the well-trained combat infantryman; not
    the mass-produce item of the ‘divisional
    training camps so dear to the Korean war,
    but th patiently trained jungle fighter who
    will stay in the jungle—not on th edges
    of it—and who will out-stay the enemy, if
    need be. The French ha finally recognized
    this and their commando groups, once
    developed, showed surprising staying and
    hitting ability. But when the showdown
    came, there were too few of them—and they
    were too late.2
    There is undoubtedly some validity to this
    point of view. We need to think carefully,
    however, before we accept large-scale
    unconventional warfare as a preferable
    alternative to the methods of fighting which
    largely characterized our efforts in Vietnam.
    Tactics Employed
    On the contrary, the Army, albeit
    imperfectly, employed tactics in a way
    which was generally appropriate to the
    situation—especially during the periods of
    large-unit combat—and suited to our own
    characteristics and assets. Indeed, in the
    process of doing this, the Army developed
    a new and significant form of warfare. We
    would be wrong to attempt to redesign the
    Army, or even a significant part of it, in an
    effort to compensate for assumed deficiencies
    in “counter-guerrilla” capabilities based on
    our Vietnam experience.
    From the point of view of the enemy,
    success in conventional battle was essential
    to winning the war in the Republic of
    Vietnam. The Communists, at least initially,
    did not believe that success in guerrilla war
    2 Bernard B. Fall, Street Without Joy, The Stackpole Co.,
    Harrisburg, Pa., 1964, p 24

  9. Cobra iComms

    Can you handle yourself?

    B. Use of Impact Weapons 20
    D. Use of Taser 23
    B. Possession and use of Authorized Firearms 25
    D. Authority to Issue Firearms 26
    E. Self-authorisation……

    THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE
    Reviewed
    FORCE ORDER 237
    MANUAL OF GUIDANCE
    On the use of Force, Firearms
    and Less Lethal Weapons
    By Police Officers

  10. @starscourge732(XBox)

    My struggling starlink gives me 50mbs and I pay $50 every month.And I am still able to download every game I want on gamepass(Black Ops 6)

    To match that with smartbiz you have to pay 417 per month for smartbiz 50 and buy hardware for above 400(router ne outdoor unit)

    Nothing compares to starlink wangu BTW ma gen3 satelites achaiswa speeds will average close to 1GBs

  11. Tendai Samukange

    Fibre to Ghettoes? Will this ever happen in Zimbabwe? It appears every ISP or broadband company in Zimbabwe sees zero need for Fibre in places like Granary, Dzivarasekwa or Glenview. The best a few have done is offer a very basic WiFi service.

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