Vodafone to use Amazon sats for cell backhaul in remote parts of Europe, Africa

Vodafone has signed a deal with Amazon Leo to use its satellites as a backhaul connection for cellular base stations in remote areas of Europe and Africa, saving it from having to cable them up to its core network.

The European telecoms biz will use Amazon Leo to connect geographically dispersed mobile base stations back to its core telecom networks, initially in Germany and other European countries.

It expects the first of these mobile sites to be connected sometime in 2026 and will extend this service as Amazon builds out its satellite constellation. The same will happen across Africa through Vodacom, the South African mobile telco which Vodafone has a majority stake in.

Amazon Leo, formerly known under the code name Project Kuiper, is low Earth orbit satellite network designed to serve up broadband from the edge of space. The first units in the constellation were deployed last year, and ...