Should we rejoice? Or just get more skeptical?

Starlink fans rejoice! Or at least cautiously so, as 2 weeks after the service announced it will be ceasing operations in Zimbabwe due to an order from POTRAZ, it seems hope may be on the horizon as the company has been stated to be applying for a Zimbabwean operating license.

This news was broken by POTRAZ Director General Dr Gift Machengete in a question and answer session at ZITF on Tuesday. In the session, Dr Machengete stated “Then, why is Starlink not operating right now? The simple answer is Starlink had not applied and we would be foolish to then go and say come and apply, please. Now they have come to apply and we are in the process of looking at their application, ” which at least sounds like said application is underway and in the middle of assessment. Machengete went on to say “We are also a regulator, we need to see how we regulate them. We also have to look at consumer and data protection. But, currently we are in the process of looking at their application.”.

As you can tell, this doesn’t guarantee that the current application will be immediately granted, after all the often mentioned “consumer data” line was mentioned. Which is in many ways a genuine concern, but also has multiple against it. It will be interesting to see how POTRAZ goes about regulating this, and if it shares those details with the public, regardless of what decision the board comes to. Of course the average Zimbabwean may have doubts of Starlink even being granted the license, and it’s clear that POTRAZ and Dr Muchengete are aware of that. Machengete again stated “So, in short, we have not banned them. What we have just done is that those who have been using Starlink terminals were asked to have Starlink switch them off because we cannot allow illegality,” going on to add information about the recent Starlink deactivations in the country:

“l think they have been switched off and maybe there is some outcry. But, you see, those were illegal and they will be regularised when they are licensed.”.

All which is essentially true, at least on the surface it is. But as you can guess, the average Zimbo is skeptical about this. After all , even the story of Econet is defined by the incredibly long waits Strive Masiyiwa and co. had to wait for their license. Ironically, it might be Econet and other ISPs that would benefit the most from Starlink not gaining a license or any legitimate way to operate here, as it’s entry would be a fundamental shift to internet access in an almost comparable way to when people started using mobile data.

If anyone in Zim can now access fairly reliable and sometimes blisteringly fast unlimited internet at $50 a month, that changes the game for almost everyone in the Internet Service game right now. Whether it’s broadband suppliers like Liquid Home/ZOL or TelOne, right down to mobile data providers like Econet and NetOne. So of course, none of them want this. Its even why people throw around jokes and rumors about the Ministry of ICT and POTRAZ slowing Starlink’s progress here for their sake. It’s not completely unbelievable. Even legally the government get more money from Econet and friends’ business models, as they are local companies. Starlink’s all digital approach negates all that, so license aside, how would our government even tax the company? Even the Minister of ICT Hon. Tatenda Mavaetera has also gone on to state how her engagement with Starlink and bringing it into Zimbabwe will be very much based on how it affects local service providers.

Either way, how this Starlink issue will be dealt with is likely going to be a definitive time in the history of how our Government adopts technology, especially technology that seems to be a net good for the country. If Starlink wasn’t so beneficial, we wouldn’t have seen ZBC and even government Ministers using it. But right now all this is speculation. All we can do is wait to see how Stalink’s license application goes, and if it actually goes through. And if it doesn’t well, we can start rioting about it afterwards.

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