Herotel CEO Van Zyl Botha has indicated its Amazon Leo satellite prices will be comparable to what it charges for fibre.
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Starlink has 10 000 satellites and a six-year head-start, yet rival Amazon Leo may beat it to market in South Africa.
Herotel will distribute Amazon Leo satellite broadband in South Africa – sidestepping the licensing trap snaring rival Starlink.
Telkom mistook dominance for permanence and lost to mobile; the mobile operators now face the same test.
The regulator says it cannot issue new network licences for now, pointing operators towards buying existing ones.
The hot-fire test failure is a major blow to Blue Origin as Jeff Bezos races to catch Elon Musk’s soon-to-list SpaceX.
The acquisition of Globalstar gives Amazon a direct-to-device network and Apple ties as it scrambles to catch Starlink.
Vodafone will start using Amazon Leo to connect mobile base stations in Europe before rolling it out through Vodacom.
A decentralised satellite network that no entity controls could make it more difficult for authoritarian governments to impose complete internet blackouts.
Satellite broadband promises to weaken authoritarian regimes’ ability to shut down the internet and silence dissent.