Vodacom Group parent Vodafone Group said on Monday it had signed a new deal with Amazon Leo, the US company’s low-Earth-orbit satellite network, to connect 4G and 5G mobile masts in remote areas in Europe and Africa.
Amazon Leo will offer connections of up to 1Gbit/s for download and 400Mbit/s for upload to link Vodafone’s network to masts in hard-to-reach locations, saving the expense of installing fibre, Vodafone said.
Vodafone will start using Amazon Leo to connect mobile base stations in Germany and other European countries this year before progressively rolling it out across Africa through Vodacom, it said.
Amazon Leo has over 200 satellites in orbit and hundreds more built and ready for launch, Vodafone said.
Read: Vodacom’s real growth story isn’t mobile
Vodafone separately plans to offer satellite connections to its customers using standard smartphones with its partner AST SpaceMobile, but has yet to set a date for services to begin. — Paul Sandle, (c) 2026 Reuters
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