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SpaceX’s Starlink is now officially available in Mozambique, Interestingly, Starlink has been approved by the country’s telecom regulator, dubbed Instituto Nacional das Comunicações de Moçambique (INCM), since May 2022 according to a tweet by Musk himself.
Although Starlink is not officially available in Southern part of Africa yet, it works through its optional roaming services.
This means that for most Zimbabweans, its now easier for them to simply buy the satelite unit from Mozambique, activate roaming services and easily bring it home for usage, however with slight roaming charges.
The actual costs of a buying the unit is USD $599 that comes on three different packages. Starlink basic internet costs $110 per and the Starlink RV internet costs $135 per while the Starlink Business costs $2,500 one-time with equipment fee.
The global roaming option will set you back $200 for international access however if you buy in Africa the $150 a month is applicable for regional counterpart costs.
There are two options for Starlink Roam: Regional Roam, and Global Roam. Starlink Roam is Starlink’s portable service product line, and it is the new name for Starlink RV. Starlink satellites cover nearly all land on Earth, but the service is still available based on regulatory approval. You can check for up-to-date coverage information on the Starlink availability map.
Both Roam services come with a Standard Starlink hardware kit. Regional Roam has an option to upgrade to the Flat High Performance hardware for in-motion use. The Standard equipment is identical to the equipment sold with Residential. Contents of the kit include the Starlink dish, stand, router, and cables. Find out more about what comes with a Starlink kit here.
Internet connectivity tests have shown Starlink can easily achieve between 150–200Mbps download speeds, and upload speeds over 50Mbps.
Why it took SpaceX this long to launch Starlink in the country remains unclear at this point. Regardless, Starlink’s introduction to Mozambique should signify a boost to the country’s economy.
Mozambique, with a population of over 30 million people but an internet adoption rate of around 25 percent, stands to greatly benefit from the launch of Starlink.
In Rwanda, for example, Starlink worked with the government to provide 500 high schools with internet access. Industries such as tourism or healthcare could also receive a huge boost.
Right now, there are now ground stations that the signals are being routed through.
Instead, Starlink will rely on inter-satellite links (ISL), meaning the signal passes through multiple satellites to the nearest ground station (likely the one in Nigeria).
From there, it travels back to the user terminal, which consequently explains the higher latency users will experience.
Starlink says that the service is expected to improve “dramatically over the next year”, likely hinting at the fact that more nearby ground stations are in the works.
Until then, users will likely have to cope with worse performance. They can, however, return their hardware kit 90 days after ordering (instead of the common 30 days).
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