Vodafone and Project Kuiper, Amazon’s Low Earth Orbit satellite (LEO) communications initiative, have announced a strategic collaboration through which Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s network to extend the reach of 4G/5G services to more of their customers in Europe and Africa.

Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s high-bandwidth, low-latency satellite network to bring the benefits of 4G/5G connectivity to areas that may otherwise be challenging and prohibitively expensive to serve via traditional fibre or microwave solutions. Project Kuiper will connect geographically-dispersed cellular antennas back to the companies’ core telecom networks. This means Vodafone and Vodacom will be able to offer 4G/5G services in more locations without the time and expense of building out fibre-based or fixed wireless links back to the core networks.

As part of the collaboration, Amazon plans to partner with Vodafone to roll out Project Kuiper’s high-speed broadband services to unserved and underserved communities around the world. The companies are also exploring additional enterprise-specific offerings to provide businesses with comprehensive global connectivity solutions, such as backup service for unexpected events and extending connectivity to remote infrastructure. 

“Vodafone’s work with Project Kuiper will provide mobile connectivity to many of the estimated 40 per cent of the global population without internet access, supporting remote communities, their schools and businesses, the emergency services, and disaster relief,” said Vodafone Group Chief Executive, Margherita Della Valle. “These connections will be complemented further through our own work on direct-to-smartphone satellite services.”

Vodafone, Vodacom and Project Kuiper will begin deploying services in Africa and Europe as Amazon’s production satellites come online. Amazon is preparing to test two prototype satellites in the coming months before starting to deploy production satellites in 2024. Amazon expects to begin beta testing Project Kuiper services with select customers by the end of 2024, and Vodafone and Vodacom plan to participate in that testing through this collaboration.