Jeff Bezos’ Amazon has beaten Elon Musk’s Starlink into entering South Africa’s satellite broadband market by embracing the one compromise its rival has spent years resisting: working through a locally licensed operator instead of trying to bend the country’s telecoms rulebook.
- •The e-commerce giant will launch its low-Earth orbit broadband service, Amazon Leo, in South Africa in 2027 through a distribution agreement with internet service provider Herotel, allowing it to sidestep the licensing deadlock that has kept Starlink out of one of Africa’s largest telecoms markets.
- •Herotel will market the service under a new brand, ‘evry’, while relying on its existing operating licences, installation network, and customer support infrastructure.
- •SpaceX’s Starlink has remained unable to launch commercially in the country because South African telecommunications rules require operators to satisfy black economic empowerment ownership requirements, including at least 30% shareholding by historically disadvantaged South Africans.
Elon Musk has repeatedly opposed the requirement and instead sought changes to the licensing framework, turning what began as a commercial application into a prolonged political and regulatory contest.
Rather than pursuing its own operating licence, Amazon will provide the satellite constellation while Herotel assumes responsibility for customer acquisition, installations, and local operations using licences it already holds. The model allows Amazon to enter the market without reopening South Africa’s contentious debate over foreign ownership in telecommunications.
Amazon Leo, formerly Project Kuiper, is Amazon’s low-Earth orbit satellite network built to deliver broadband to locations beyond the reach of fibre and fixed wireless infrastructure. The company has deployed 390 satellites after 14 launches since beginning constellation deployment in April 2025, enough to begin initial commercial service in selected regions later this year before expanding into South Africa next year.
For Herotel, the partnership extends broadband beyond the commercial limits of terrestrial networks. The company has traditionally concentrated on smaller towns, rural communities, and underserved areas where fibre deployment is often constrained by the absence of backhaul infrastructure or reliable electricity.
Herotel now serves more than 350,000 customers across over 550 towns, cities and suburbs in South Africa through fibre and fixed wireless networks. Its footprint includes about 120 offices and roughly 1,400 employees, giving Amazon an established nationwide service network instead of having to build one from scratch.
The agreement also follows Herotel’s integration into Maziv, the holding company for Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel, after a three-year regulatory approval process.
The partnership arrives as governments across Africa increasingly weigh how satellite broadband should fit within domestic telecommunications policy. While Starlink has secured licences across much of the continent by applying directly for market access, South Africa has proved unusually resistant because of its ownership rules.
Amazon is also laying the groundwork for expansion in Kenya and Nigeria, where it will not be constrained by local ownership rules. In May, Amazon’s local subsidiary, Kuiper Kenya Limited, applied to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) for a Network Facilities Provider Tier 2 licence, which would allow it to build and operate satellite infrastructure and offer broadband services directly to consumers.
Amazon Applies for License To Rival Starlink in Kenya
