Amazon Leo to bring satellite broadband to South Africa

Amazon has announced a partnership with South African internet service provider Herotel to bring its Leo satellite broadband service to the country, targeting millions of people in rural and underserved areas. The service, to be branded as "evry," is scheduled for commercial launch in 2027 and will be the first authorized distribution of Amazon's low-Earth orbit constellation in Africa.

The agreement, announced on July 15, 2026, is structured so that Herotel, a subsidiary of the infrastructure group Maziv, will hold all necessary telecommunications licenses from South Africa's regulator, Icasa. This approach allows Amazon to bypass the licensing impasse that has kept its primary competitor, SpaceX's Starlink, from entering the market. Starlink has faced delays due to South Africa's requirement that licensees be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.

Herotel will leverage its existing national network of over 120 offices to handle installation, customer service, and support for the new satellite service. The company, which currently serves more than 350,000 customers with fiber and fixed wireless, stated the partnership aligns with its decade-long mission to...