Well, we DEFINITELY didn’t see this coming.

Just two weeks ago, we wrote an article about how you could get the cheapest plan for Starlink available, noting that Starlink’s Roaming plans, whilst technically inferior to the new Priority Business plans, were more than good enough for most Zimbabweans. Unfortunately, it seems Starlink has noticed countries like ours, where people use roaming plans in capacity-filled areas, and has instead decided to increase the subscription fee of those from between $60-85 USD  to $100 , bringing them right in line with the aforementioned  Business plans. As such, Starlink has basically killed their cheapest subscriptions in Zimbabwe, leaving a notable hole in the affordable internet space that many aren’t sure if they can recover.

For clarity, Starlink has started contacting specific customers about this looming price change, also noting that they will get a credit to ease the price change, and that it will take effect on their next billing cycle, as the photo above shows. However, this seems to be based on the region that your roaming plan is based in and seemingly even how long you have been using the plan, so it’s genuinely hard to tell when the price increase might be coming for your individual subscription. What is clear, however, is that it IS coming, as Starlink has been highlighting roaming price increases since late last year, changing them per region every month or so.

So, this is clearly a sad day for roaming users, but if that’s the case, what is the option now? Well, at the moment, of course, Priority Business plans are the only ones available, but as we stated in our last article, they might not be that much of a problem for people who are already using $85 per month roaming packages, as those people are likely going to find it easiest to switch to a Business Priority plan.  Especially since it’s going to be a much faster speed and have much more priority data for only $15 more. Users who were using $60 plans, however, are likely going to have the hardest time of making the switch, and even now, we don’t know whether everyone who was using these plans will be capable of it. If you are a business, such as a small internet cafe or one of many transportation industry users, this likely isn’t a problem. A $40 subscription increase isn’t Fun but it is easier to stave off with business expenses as compared to if you’re a small household that specifically uses Starlink as your main internet provider.

Now, will Starlink by any chance the reintroduce Residential plans, which were the reason most Zimbabweans got interested in using the service anyway? Perhaps, but at this point, that seems unlikely as well, so most people are stuck between using a roaming plan that’s going to cost $100 and a priority business that only costs one dollar more.

The situation even allows local players to finally start flexing their muscles. As Liquid Home has Wibroniks and Fibroniks plans that range from $90 to $100 per month, and are both unlimited. While TelOne remains the value Champion here with a $40 dollar unlimited fiber and ADSL plans.

As for any cheaper alternative, unfortunately, the likes of  TagTel have continued to be a disappointment, while Dolphin Telecom was a darling for a huge part of last year, but it recently admitted that it cannot sustain unlimited data plans and is now offering limited data packages that range from around 100GB and up. As usual, this would be a perfect chance for local giant Econet to step in with maybe a reintroduction of Smartbiz, at around $60-$80 a month. But knowing Econet and how they killed Smartbiz late last year, it seems highly unlikely that they have the idea of offering a value Data service for most users in mind. The less we say about its major competitor, NetOne, the better. As such. Is it truly worthwhile for people to continue trying to get Starlink? At this moment, we can’t give anyone a General recommendation. If you live in an area where TelOne is available, this might be the best time to actually look into this service. If you don’t , then the options unfortunately, seem to keep getting slimmer.

So again, hopefully, Starlink can offer a roaming service again. But it seems they’ve been noticing the amount of uptake they’ve been getting for Business packages, perhaps they want to maximise that before spreading coverage back into Residential plans again. We don’t know for sure, but we do hope some form of an alternative comes up. Either from Starlink or a local provider that decides growth matters more than your customers hating you. But hey, all we can do is hope, right?

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