Aura Group CEO Samuelle Dimairho has said their pricing structure reduces internet data and subscription costs by at least 50% compared to current market rates, reported The Herald.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) recently licensed several companies, including Aura, the state-owned telecommunications firm TelOne, Frampol, Dandemutande, and Paratus, as resellers of Starlink services in Zimbabwe.
Dimairho, whose company was founded in 2008 and has since expanded across the southern African region, said their pricing could enable clients to save up to 65%.
Speaking at the launch event in Harare, where Aura was recognised as one of the resellers of Starlink by Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera, Dimairho said:
In some cases, clients can save up to 65%, with bills that previously amounted to US$1,000 potentially dropping to between US$350 and US$500.
Our pricing structure cuts the cost of internet data and subscriptions by a minimum of 50 per cent. It’s a minimum of 50 per cent when you are comparing what we are selling versus what is on the market currently and what people are paying.
In some instances, you know we enable clients to make even up to 65 per cent savings on existing bills — where they were paying US$1000, they might end up paying between US$350 and US$500.
Aura Group is also distributing the Starlink standard kit (premium) at a retail price including Value Added Tax of US$420 and high-performance kit at US$2 999 while data, inclusive of duty, 40 Gigabyte (GB) of priority plus standard unlimited at US$120, and 1 terabyte (TB) of priority plus standard unlimited at US$175.
Aura said 2TB of priority plus standard unlimited is going for US$340 while additional priority data per GB is pegged at US$0,33. Said Dimairho:
If I were to give you an example, at my home I have a 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) connection and it’s unlimited and I pay US$200 per month.
Now with Starlink, those priority packages you can get speeds of up to 220Mbps and if you have the high-performance kit, you can get up to speeds of 350 Mbps.
I can tell you right now that someone who has a 200 (Mbps) connection with priority in Zimbabwe is not going to pay anything less than US$ 10,000 per month.
Dimairho said that, in partnership with Starlink officials, Aura Group aims to empower underserved communities by improving healthcare services, enhancing food security, expanding access to information, and supporting value addition and beneficiation across various sectors. He said:
Our last-mile internet solutions will deliver speeds of up to 350Mbps through Starlink kits. Additionally, we will offer backhaul services for bulk internet data users, with speeds reaching up to 20Gbps.
While POTRAZ has licensed several firms as resellers of Starlink services in the country, currently, Aura Group and TelOne are the only local companies approved by POTRAZ to resell Starlink devices.
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