Utande to Shut Down LTE Services by January 2026

Utande has sent out emails to subscribers announcing that its LTE and WiMAX services will be discontinued on 31 January 2026. We are one of those affected. We have been using Utande’s LTE service since last year, and honestly, the first thought that hit me was: so our $400 LTE hardware is just going to become a piece of plastic?

It’s a tough pill to swallow. Many of us invested in the equipment hoping it would serve us for years, especially in areas where fibre isn’t an option. But now, with this announcement, it’s clear that Utande is exiting the LTE game altogether. They’ve cited rising licensing and spectrum usage costs as the reason, but let’s be real that’s probably only half the story.

From what we have seen, Starlink has changed everything. When I first got Utande LTE, speeds of around 10 Mbps felt decent for home and small business use. But now, you have Starlink offering speeds that regularly hit 250 Mbps — for about US$30 a month. Compare that to the cost of Utande LTE packages and you can see why users started jumping ship. It’s not even a competition anymore.

Utande, like many local ISPs, are caught in a storm they didn’t create. They built their business on spectrum-based wireless technology and that came with heavy fees, equipment costs, and coverage challenges. When cheaper, faster, and easier-to-install options like Starlink entered the market, the writing was on the wall.

Still, this change stings. We had good service with Utande, steady connections during load shedding, decent customer support, and good uptime. But this decision makes sense from a business standpoint. Maintaining LTE towers, paying spectrum fees, and competing with global satellite providers that don’t face the same local cost structure is a losing battle.

Utande says they’ll continue supporting customers through fibre and enterprise Starlink services. That’s good to hear, but for ordinary users, those options might not be as affordable or accessible. Fibre isn’t everywhere, and enterprise Starlink isn’t exactly the same as the residential kits most people are buying now.

It’s the end of an era, really. LTE filled a crucial gap in Zimbabwe’s connectivity landscape; a bridge between unreliable mobile data and the still-growing fibre network. But times have changed, and technology always moves faster than we expect.

For now, we’ll keep using my LTE connection while it lasts. But come January 2026, that green light on our router will go dark for good and we’ll have to find a new way to stay online (..umm starlink). If you’re an affected Utande user, the best move now is to start exploring alternatives early. Check if fibre is available in your area, compare Starlink’s packages, or talk to your provider about transition support. Because like it or not, Zimbabwe’s internet landscape is evolving and the LTE era is drawing to a close.