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“Higher political offices” above Potraz have insisted that no one else can sell or distribute StarLink devices in Zimbabwe as they pave the way for their own personal business interests, TechnoMag can report.
Sources privy to the development have confirmed to TechnoMag that these players influencing the higher offices have directed Potraz to delay or deny rights to any other local distributors as they have vast interests in the already cleared local distributors.
To manage the supply and demand market forces, they have forced Potraz not to allow other private players hence, creating an uneven playing field as they seek first in the market advantage above the private players.
To date only state-owned company TelOne and Unknown Aura which is rumored to be owned by the first family’s sons, and IMC owned by Wickneil Chivhayo have been cleared by Potraz to distribute StarLink in Zimbabwe, the other private players to date have been told to wait for clearance before they hit the market.
- Aura ( Cleared by Potraz)
- TelOne (Cleared by Potraz)
- IMC (Cleared By Potraz , Starlink not certain)
- ZODSAT
- Dandemutande
- Frampol
- Dark Fibre AFrica
- Zarnet
Starlink was officially licensed to operate in Zimbabwe since September at a Licence fee of $575 000 a move which got many excited then, but today in December almost 3 months later the mood has changed.
While most Zimbabweans had hoped by now they can easily walk into any shop or approach any retailer or distributor and buy the gadget, this is unfortunately not so on ground!
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe Potraz from nowhere simply demanded that all distributors “must be cleared” so that they can sell and distribute StarLink kits.
In fact it is a criminal offense for anyone to actually sell or distribute these gadgets without Potraz clearing them, hence all StarLink retailers that had gotten direct approval are still not allowed to sell in Zimbabwe until the government “clears these players”
In fact StarLink devices are still very scarce, yes there are also having their own technical challenges of being out of capacity only in some major cities
, yet still we do not have these gadgets readily available for sale in the market as they shrink the market until bandwidth contention and more satellites are deployed for the constellation
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