Amazon announced that its satellite Internet constellation system Leo will provide network connection services for Herotel, South Africa's largest Internet service provider (ISP). The partnership aims to provide coverage to households and small businesses that are unable to connect to the Internet due to the prohibitive cost of laying fiber optic and fixed wireless networks.
It is reported that Herotel will integrate Amazon Leo’s technology into a new service called “Evry”. The service is expected to be officially put into commercial operation in 2027 and is committed to allowing more residential users to smoothly access the Internet. It is worth noting that this is also the first such cooperation agreement reached by Amazon Leo on the African continent.
Unlike Europe and the United States, where the Internet is highly popular, South Africa's network connectivity still needs to be improved. According to 2024 data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), South Africa's Internet penetration rate is only 78.4%. Amazon noted that this is a long-standing challenge. Traditional infrastructure is impractical and prohibitively expensive due to long distances, complex terrain, and low population density, leaving millions of people living on farms, small towns, and rural communities still lacking reliable internet service.
With Amazon Leo, users can connect to the network simply through a compact antenna, eliminating the need to install fiber optics or fixed wireless infrastructure at the client site. The Amazon Leo satellite operates in a low-Earth orbit 590 kilometers above the earth. It provides network speeds that are sufficient to smoothly support video calls, streaming media playback, remote working, and online learning.
Considering that the cost of putting satellite constellations into orbit is extremely high, there are currently very few institutions on the market that provide such services, so the entry of Amazon Leo is undoubtedly a major benefit. Although Starlink, owned by SpaceX, is the leader in this field, Starlink has not yet opened its services to South African users. Industry analysts believe that as market competition intensifies, theoretically the prices of these satellite network services are expected to fall further. Currently, in some countries, the cost of Starlink may be as much as twice that of ordinary broadband, so the cheaper price will be welcomed by the majority of users.