Vodafone (VOD) and Amazon’s (AMZN) low Earth orbit satellite network Amazon Leo signed an agreement to connect more 4G and 5G mobile sites in remote areas in Europe and Africa.
Amazon Leo offers connections of up to 1 Gbps for download and 400 Mbps for upload. The companies said that with Amazon Leo, Vodafone can deploy 4G and 5G base stations easily and affordably in unserved areas, without the time and expense of installing long fiber-based or fixed wireless links back to the core network.
Under the agreement, Vodafone will use Amazon Leo to connect geographically dispersed mobile base stations back to its core telecom networks in Germany and other European countries.
Amazon Leo will be progressively rolled out in Africa through Vodacom. The companies expect the first of these mobile sites to be connected in 2026 and to extend the service as Amazon Leo builds out its constellation.
Vodafone noted that Amazon Leo has over 200 satellites in orbit and hundreds more built and ready for launch.