Panic. He tried again. Same thing. Then he remembered: TopStar activation requires you to first , not just activate.

At minute 14, the screen flickered. The blue screen vanished. Suddenly, the ZESCO United team was jogging onto the pitch, the crowd singing.

It was a Saturday evening in Lusaka. Mr. Banda had just rushed home from the market with a bag of kapenta and a cold Mosi. His son, little Kofi, was already bouncing on the sofa. Tonight was the big Super League match—ZESCO United vs. Power Dynamos.

But when Mr. Banda pressed the power button on the TopStar decoder, the TV screen showed only a blue abyss and a single line of text:

Kofi ran and returned with the TopStar carton. Inside was the decoder, remote, cables, and the most important piece of plastic—the with a 13-digit number on it. Without that number, activation was impossible.

Immediately, a confirmation SMS arrived: “TopStar: Payment received. Your service will be activated within 15 minutes. Smartcard: 1234567890123”

That night, as Power Dynamos scored a last-minute winner, Mr. Banda raised his Mosi and smiled. He was no longer a decoder owner—he was a decoder master.

Mr. Banda kept refreshing the decoder by unplugging it for 10 seconds and plugging it back in. After 5 minutes, nothing. After 10 minutes, nothing. Kofi started crying.