Maybe they had to stretch it out so that as many people as possible could sign up for Starlink before they pulled the trigger.
That way, 10 days of darnkess would have less effectiveness against the population.
Which might incentivize them not to do the blackout -- if there's no longer an ability to prevent comms from getting out, then they may no longer wish to risk their power system going down for no benefit.
Maybe they had to stretch it out so that as many people as possible could sign up for Starlink before they pulled the trigger.
That way, 10 days of darnkess would have less effectiveness against the population.
Which might incentivize them not to do the blackout -- if there's no longer an ability to prevent comms from getting out, then they may no longer wish to risk their power system going down for no benefit.