Vodafone teams up with Amazon’s Project Kuiper to extend 4G, 5G reach

Vodafone has entered into a strategic collaboration with Amazon’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation Project Kuiper to extend the reach of its 4G and 5G services in Europe and Africa.

The British telecom operator Tuesday said that Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s high-bandwidth, low-latency satellite network to connect mobile antennas in remote locations to the companies’ core 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,” Vodafone said.

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.

Vodafone said that the companies are also exploring additional enterprise-specific offerings, such as backup service.

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

“Together we’ll explore how we can help our customers get the most value from expanded connectivity, particularly in areas like residential broadband, agriculture, education, healthcare, transportation, and financial services,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services.