Kathy Gibson reports – Herotel has signed a distribution agreement with Amazon to bring its Leo Constellation satellite service to South Africa.
Set to go live in 2027, South Africa will be among one of the first countries in the world to connect to the low earth orbit network previously code-named Kuiper.
“Our goal is to connect homes and businesses across South Africa with our evry service – based on Leo,” says Van Zyl Botha, co-founder and CEO of Herotel.
“In the South African environment, it is difficult to reach people where there is no backhaul fibre or other infrastructure,” Botha adds. “But with Leo we will have national reach beyond the existing telecommunications infrastructure to connect every South African and South African business.”
Herotel is well-positioned to bring Leo to underserved parts of the country as it has traditionally focused on smaller towns and cities.
evry will be supported by the company’s existing national operating base including local installation, customer service, field operations, and support teams across 120 offices nationwide. This gives the service a local delivery structure from commercial launch rather than relying on a remote operating model.
“We have spent years listening to customers who wanted reliable Internet, but did not have a practical option,” says Estiaan Ferreira, chief commercial officer of Herotel. “evry will give farms, game reserves, rural homes and underserved communities a practical way to get online – with Herotel teams available to support them on the ground.”
Herotel currently serves more than 350 000 active customers across more than 550 towns, cities and suburbs through fibre and fixed wireless networks.
Customers can sign up now to show interest in the service from this week, with fulfillment to take place in 2027.
Details on products and pricing will be shared with customers closer to the launch date.
Trevor Vieweg, head of global business for Amazon Leo, points out that Amazon has committed to a $10-billion investment in the Leo infrastructure.
About 3 000 satellites have already been launched, and Leo expects to start offering services in some parts of the world later this year.
South Africa, set to be connected in 2027, will be among the earliest adopters – and the first in Africa.
“We will have the capacity to serve tens of millions of customers globally, and see a large market opportunity in South Africa,” Vieweg says. “There is a lot of work ahead, but this is an important milestone in closing the connectivity gap.”
Botha adds that the product is ideal for the local market, offering up to 1Gbps upload and 400Mbps download speeds, with a latency of 50ms or less.
“Customers can expect true broadband,” Vieweg says.
Leo is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite network designed to deliver high-speed Internet to customers beyond the reach of fibre and fixed wireless.
Amazon Leo satellites operate at low Earth orbit – closer than traditional geostationary satellites – reducing latency and making a full range of everyday Internet use cases including video calls, streaming, remote work, online learning, and smart farming more seamless. The constellation is connected by high-speed optical mesh links enabling reliable performance without reliance on terrestrial infrastructure.
Customers will connect through compact Amazon Leo antennas. Amazon Leo Pro and Amazon Leo Nano customer antennas will be available through evry.
Regarding ICASA licensing, Vieweg points out that Herotel will hold the licence, not Amazon.
While the Leo service is launching with Herotel, he is not ruling out the possibility of other partners coming on board.
The Amazon Leo logo is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons