Amazon Leo will launch satellite internet in South Africa in 2027, seemingly beating Elon Musk’s Starlink in his home country. Musk has refused the Black-ownership rules Amazon appears willing to meet.
Jeff Bezos is about to beat Elon Musk in Musk’s own back yard. Amazon said on Wednesday it will bring its Amazon Leo satellite internet service to South Africa in 2027, the Associated Press reported. It is the company’s first satellite deal on the African continent.
Amazon will work with the local provider Herotel to reach a country of 62 million people. Amazon disclosed no financial terms. South Africa’s government backed the deal, and Communications Minister Solly Malatsi appeared alongside Amazon and Herotel to announce it.
Why Starlink is not there
Starlink, owned by Musk’s SpaceX, already operates in around two dozen African countries. It is not in South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy, and the one where Musk was born.
Musk has blamed the country’s rules. He has said South African regulations blocked Starlink because he is white, and has accused the government of racism. He was pointing at the country’s affirmative-action policies.
Those rules require foreign firms in the communications sector to sell a minority stake in their local arm to Black or other non-white owners before they can get a licence. The government says the policy exists to redress opportunities denied under apartheid. Musk has refused to follow it.
Amazon, by taking a local partner, appears willing to work within the same rules. That contrast is the story.
A land grab in orbit
Amazon is playing catch-up. It launched its first low-orbit satellites last year and says it now has more than 390 in service. Starlink launched its first in 2019 and now has more than 10,000, across over 160 countries.
But the service once called Project Kuiper is moving fast. Now commercially live, Amazon Leo has already signed launch deals in Thailand, Kazakhstan, Australia, and several Latin American markets. South Africa is the start of a wider African push, with a second partner, Vanu, lined up.
The prize is large. Africa has more than 1.5 billion people, many in rural areas with no fixed internet. That is exactly the gap satellites promise to fill. And for once, Bezos has reached it before Musk.
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