Amazon beats Musk to launch satellite internet in South Africa

by Gerald Imre

Cape Town, South Africa (AP) — Amazon said Wednesday technology company will launch its new Satellite Internet Service Amazon Leo South Africa in 2027, looks to be on the way Elon Musk's rival Starlink To win business in Africa's most advanced economy.

Amazon, which was founded jeff bezossaid it would partner with South African internet provider Herotel to launch a new service in the country of 62 million people. Amazon said it was its first satellite internet agreement on the African continent.

No financial details were initially disclosed.

Amazon's announcement comes after Musk harshly criticized the government in his country of birth. the richest man in the world She has said that South African regulations prevent her from launching Starlink there because she is white, and has alleged government of casteism.

he was referring South Africa's affirmative action policiesWhich requires foreign companies operating in the communications sector to give up minority shares of their local entities to black or other non-white owners in order to obtain licenses.

These rules are meant to provide opportunities to non-white people that were denied to them under the country's previous apartheid system of white minority rule.

The South African government has backed the Amazon deal, with Communications Minister Solly Malatsi joining Amazon and Herotel representatives to announce the deal.

Amazon launched its first low-orbit internet satellite last year and says it has more than 390 satellites currently operational.

Starlink's first operational satellite was launched in 2019 and has now launched Over 10,000 in class. Starlink's satellite internet has launched in about two dozen other African countries, but Musk has refused to follow South Africa's affirmative action rules.

Amazon said on Wednesday that the South African deal was the start of its effort to expand across Africa, where it would also partner with Vanu Inc., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based company that specializes in mobile internet in developing countries.