{"id":866376,"date":"2026-07-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=866376"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:38:25","slug":"amazons-internet-service-from-space-coming-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/866376\/amazons-internet-service-from-space-coming-to-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon’s internet service from space coming to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Herotel is bringing Amazon Leo to South Africa, which is designed to deliver high-speed internet to customers beyond the reach of fibre and fixed wireless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herotel, which is owned by Maziv, has entered into a distribution agreement with Amazon Leo and will bring the satellite-powered internet to residential customers in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon Leo is a low Earth orbit satellite network and a competitor to Starlink, a network from Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Leo is expected to launch commercially in South Africa in 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herotel said that it aims to use the new service to connect households and small businesses where traditional infrastructure has been impractical or unavailable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is especially relevant for communities where distance, terrain, cost or population density have made conventional internet rollout difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these households still rely on mobile data, legacy GEO satellite services, or have no reliable connectivity. Herotel will launch the service via a new product called Evry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Evry represents the next chapter in what Herotel has been building for more than a decade,” said Van Zyl Botha, CEO of Herotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have always believed that South Africans outside the major metros, whether on farms, in small towns, in townships, or in rural communities, deserve reliable, affordable internet.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comes from space <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dietlof Mare, Group CEO at Maziv; Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi; Van Zyl Botha, CEO and co-founder of Herotel; David Zapolsky, Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer at Amazon. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Amazon’s satellites operate in low Earth orbit at roughly 590 kilometres above the earth, which is closer than the orbits of traditional geostationary satellites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon said this lower orbit aims to reduce latency, enabling a full range of everyday internet use cases, including video calls, streaming, and remote work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The constellation is connected by high-speed optical mesh links, enabling reliable performance without reliance on terrestrial infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers connect via Amazon Leo antennas, and the Amazon Leo Pro and Amazon Leo Nano customer antennas will be available through Evry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Amazon Leo and Herotel share the same mission to empower all South Africans through access to high-speed internet,” said David Zapolsky, Amazon\u2019s Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis collaboration is about breaking down barriers and unlocking opportunity for millions of people who don’t yet have reliable access to work, education, or the services they depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon added that the launch of Leo is an extension of its commitment to South Africa, which now spans more than two decades, and builds on the growing momentum of Amazon Leo across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has operated Amazon Web Services in the country for close to two decades and launched its marketplace in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has also recently launched its Prime service in South Africa, offering faster deliveries and Amazon Prime Video for R59 per month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Herotel is bringing Amazon Leo to South Africa, with the aim of bringing reliable internet to underserved communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":866381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2077332618048098681","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[657,10375],"class_list":["post-866376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-amazon","tag-herotel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866376"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866389,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866376\/revisions\/866389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}