Amazon has announced a major strategic partnership to bring its satellite internet service, Amazon Leo (formerly known as Project Kuiper), to South Africa by 2027.

This announcement was made in collaboration with Herotel, the largest fixed internet provider in South Africa, to launch a consumer-oriented commercial service under the name evry.

The partnership aims to provide high-speed internet to rural and remote areas that lack traditional infrastructure such as fiber optics.

Thanks to the satellites' low orbit (about 590 km), download speeds for homes will reach 400 Mbps, and for businesses, 1 Gbps with a very low latency of around 50 milliseconds.

Herotel will handle distribution, installation, and direct technical support for users through its branches across the country.

This move comes as a preemptive strike against Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, which is facing difficulties entering the South African market due to foreign company ownership laws (which require a 30% local contribution to enable historically disadvantaged groups).

Amazon has successfully overcome this obstacle through direct partnership with a fully licensed local distributor (Herotel), paving the way for Amazon Leo to be the first to lead an internet satellite boom in the country.