Vanu has Partnered with Amazon to Speed Up Rural Coverage in Africa

Vanu has partnered with Amazon to speed up rural coverage in Africa, marking a big step toward better mobile broadband in parts of Southern Africa that haven’t had strong access yet. This new deal announced at the Africa Tech Summit 2025 in Cape Town brings together Vanu, a US-based rural connectivity expert, with Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a satellite network aiming to boost internet availability in remote places.

The partnership means Vanu will start integrating Project Kuiper’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite backhaul services into its offerings. This move will help expand mobile broadband in underserved areas from 2026 onwards, overcoming the costly and complicated challenges of traditional fibre or microwave networks in rural regions. By leveraging Kuiper’s satellite links, Vanu can build mobile sites more efficiently, reaching more people who’ve been left behind digitally.

This timing is especially important as satellite broadband competition heats up across Africa. Project Kuiper is working hard to catch up with the more established SpaceX Starlink, which currently operates in over 25 African countries and just signed a big deal with Vodacom to improve connectivity within the continent. With more than 150 satellites already in orbit, Project Kuiper has made strides in key markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Egypt, helping operators deliver faster 4G and 5G services through satellite backhaul.

Vanu to speed up rural coverage in Africa

Vanu brings years of experience to the table, having started in 1998 from research at MIT. They build equipment and services that help mobile network operators bring coverage to remote communities profitably. Millions of users across Africa, Asia, and Latin America already benefit from their innovative platforms, including their Coverage as a Service model and the Anywave Base Station, which can support multiple cellular standards at once and was the first FCC-certified software-defined radio.

Andrew Beard, Vanu’s CEO, sees this partnership as a way to open up new opportunities in digital education, healthcare, commerce, and emergency services, starting with Southern Africa. He explains, “Amazon’s low Earth orbit constellation gives us the scale, reliability, and performance to reach areas that have been technologically excluded for far too long. Together, we can reshape what is possible for rural connectivity in Africa.”

Chris Weber, vice president at Project Kuiper, echoes this excitement, describing the partnership as perfectly aligned with Kuiper’s mission to close global coverage gaps. “Our backhaul solutions are a key part of connecting people beyond the reach of existing networks, and Vanu has a proven history of connecting some of the most remote places on Earth.”

This deal highlights how fierce the LEO satellite race has become in Africa. Just recently, Starlink teamed up with Vodacom to provide high-speed, low-latency internet to both businesses and rural communities across the continent. Starlink’s global presence spans 150 markets, including many in Africa, expanding quickly with partnerships like these.

Project Kuiper, on the other hand, is focusing on building strong partnerships with operators and growing its satellite network to compete. By working with Vanu, Kuiper hopes to prove that satellite backhaul can create dependable and scalable mobile coverage models, even in Africa’s toughest-to-reach spots.

Starting in Southern Africa, Vanu and Amazon’s Project Kuiper plan to expand their efforts across Africa in the next few years, shaping the future of space-powered connectivity on the continent and giving more people access to reliable internet where it’s needed most.

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