Telecommunications giant Vodafone and Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite broadband network, Amazon Leo, have partnered to connect more remote mobile masts and boost network resilience in Europe and Africa.

The agreement will result in Vodacom leveraging Amazon Leo to connect more 4G and 5G mobile sites in remote areas to improve coverage for customers with limited connectivity.

“Vodafone is looking to space to connect more mobile base stations to our core network, and strengthen resilience even in the most challenging environments. Amazon Leo’s new satellite constellation supports our ambition to give all Vodafone customers reliable and high-speed connectivity, wherever they are,” said Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle.

Amazon Leo will enable Vodafone to deploy 4G and 5G base stations more easily and affordably in previously unserved areas, without the time and expense of installing long fibre-based or fixed-wireless links back to the core network.

This is especially relevant in rural hard-to-reach areas, the company said in a statement on Monday.

“Connectivity should not depend on where you live. With Amazon Leo, we are helping bring fast, reliable broadband to places traditional infrastructure cannot easily reach, from rural communities to critical emergency networks,” added Amazon Devices and Services senior VP Panos Panay.

Vodafone will also use the service to boost network resilience for emergency and critical online services should fibre links connecting mobile masts be broken or impacted by flooding.

Amazon Leo enables telecommunications providers to rapidly expand and enhance network infrastructure through satellite-based connectivity, offering high-speed cell site backhaul of up to 1 Gb/s download and 400 Mb/s upload.

Under the new agreement, Vodafone will use Amazon Leo to connect geographically dispersed mobile base stations back to its core telecommunications networks in Germany and other European countries.

Thereafter, Amazon Leo will be progressively rolled out across Africa through Vodacom.

The companies expect the first of these mobile sites to be connected in 2026 and to extend this service as Amazon Leo builds out its constellation.

“At Vodacom, we are working every day to bring more people in Africa online and in reach of vital digital services. Partnering with Amazon Leo enables us to swiftly deploy mobile connectivity in isolated areas, allowing us to efficiently expand our reach to more customers throughout the African continent,” said Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub.

The agreement supports Vodafone’s goal of extending advanced 5G services in Europe and aligns with Vodacom’s Vision 2030 targets: reaching 260-million customers, expanding financial services and raising smartphone penetration to 75% by 2030.

Amazon Leo has over 200 satellites in orbit and hundreds more built and ready for launch.

It started a preview for enterprise customers in November 2025 and will roll out more broadly as it adds coverage and capacity to its network.