Amazon is bringing its satellite internet service to South Africa through a new partnership with local provider Herotel, marking the company’s first agreement of this kind on the continent.
Herotel, which is owned by Maziv, has signed a distribution agreement with Amazon Leo, the tech giant’s low Earth orbit satellite network and direct rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink. The service will roll out to residential customers under a new product called Evry, with commercial launch expected in 2027.
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David Zapolsky, Amazon’s Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer, said Amazon Leo and Herotel share a common goal of empowering South Africans through access to high-speed internet. He described the partnership as an effort to break down barriers for millions of people who still lack reliable access to work, education and essential services.
Herotel plans to target households and small businesses in areas where traditional infrastructure has been too costly or impractical to build. This includes farms, small towns, townships and rural communities where distance, terrain and low population density have long stood in the way of fibre and fixed wireless rollout. Many of these households currently depend on mobile data or older satellite technology, while others have no reliable internet access at all.
Van Zyl Botha, CEO of Herotel, called Evry the next chapter in more than a decade of work connecting underserved parts of the country. He said South Africans outside the major metros deserve reliable, affordable internet just as much as those in cities, and that the new service will reach customers even fibre and fixed wireless cannot serve.
Technically, Amazon’s satellites orbit at roughly 590 kilometres above Earth, considerably closer than traditional geostationary satellites. Amazon says this lower orbit helps cut latency, making the service suitable for everyday tasks like video calls, streaming and remote work. The satellites are linked through a high-speed optical mesh network, allowing the system to function reliably without depending on ground-based infrastructure.
Notably, Herotel’s arrangement lets Amazon Leo enter the South African market without holding its own communications licence, since Herotel will handle the necessary regulatory approvals. This is a key point of contrast with Starlink, which has been locked out of South Africa for years over a rule requiring communications licence holders to be 30 percent owned by historically disadvantaged groups, a condition SpaceX has refused to meet.
For Amazon, the deal builds on more than two decades of business in South Africa, where it has run Amazon Web Services and, more recently, launched its online marketplace and Prime membership service. The Herotel partnership is being positioned as a major step in expanding Amazon Leo’s footprint across Africa, with the company also working with mobile infrastructure firm Vanu to extend cellular connectivity to rural communities on the continent.
