Amazon will build its first African satellite ground station in Kenya to offer faster internet and mobile phone services, intensifying competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The Jeff Bezos-owned company has applied for a licence through its newly registered local subsidiary, Amazon Kuiper Kenya Limited, to set up the ground gateway from where it can transmit internet traffic beyond Kenya.
Amazon seeks a 15-year international gateway licence for its Amazon Leo satellite internet project, new disclosures from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) show.
The ground station is part of the US tech giant’s satellite internet project and is expected to improve Kenya’s internet speeds by reducing the time data is transmitted between the firm’s satellites in space and users’ gadgets like mobile phones, computers and laptops.
The closer the ground station is to users, the faster services like video streaming and internet calling become.
Why a ground station matters
Such a facility is a local landing point for satellite signals and links mobile users with the internet better by reducing the distance signals travel, as they no longer need to be transmitted to faraway ground stations.
Starlink set up a similar ground station in Nairobi last year, which significantly improved its internet speed and market uptake in Kenya.
Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, was launched to directly challenge Starlink’s dominance in the rapidly growing low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet market and is planned for rollout this year.
It aims to offer a “direct to device” service where data is transmitted between satellites and standard smartphones without the need for cell towers, similar to Starlink.
“(Amazon Kuiper Kenya Limited) has, pursuant to the provisions of the Kenya Information and Communications Act… made applications to the Communications Authority of Kenya for the grant of the (International Gateway Operator licence),” CA said in a Kenya Gazette notice.
CA issues the permit to firms seeking to set up satellite earth stations and cross-border land infrastructure.
It allows companies to establish satellite earth stations and network control centres within Kenya to facilitate the transmission and reception of telecommunications traffic internationally.
“It is given to firms seeking to expand satellite internet services by establishing earth stations that relay internet traffic to terrestrial or submarine cable networks outside the country,” a CA official told the Business Daily by phone.
The location of the proposed ground station has not been disclosed.
The infrastructure behind ground stations
Ground stations are the critical link between satellites in orbit and terrestrial internet networks. They receive data transmitted from satellites, convert it into conventional internet traffic and route it through fibre-optic infrastructure.
They effectively serve as mission control centres for satellite networks, tracking spacecraft, managing communications and ensuring uninterrupted connections as satellites move across the sky.
The facilities are typically connected to Points of Presence (PoPs), which link satellite networks directly to terrestrial fibre infrastructure.
By shortening the physical distance internet traffic travels, ground stations and PoPs help reduce latency and improve network performance.
Following the launch of Starlink’s Nairobi ground station and PoP in January last year, for instance, the network’s latency fell from 296 milliseconds to 39 milliseconds, according to the network intelligence firm Ookla.
Latency is the delay required for data to travel from its source to its destination in a network. Starlink’s improvement translated into smoother video calls, faster browsing and better video streaming performance for users.
Industry estimates show that building a high-capacity satellite gateway can cost up to $15 million (Sh1.9 billion).
Race for rural connectivity
Amazon plans to sell satellite ‘dish’ antennas and partner with traditional telcos seeking to integrate satellite technology for data relay into their mobile networks to expand coverage in rural areas.
Starlink has already inked deals with Airtel to allow for “direct-to-device” service. Both firms will leverage their owners’ outsized wealth to gain market share.
Bezos, the fourth richest man with a fortune of $224 billion (Sh29 trillion), is both a latecomer and an underdog in the quest to fill the sky with satellites.
But his firm is committed to closing the gap with Starlink, which is galaxies ahead and is owned by the world’s richest man with $839 billion (Sh109 trillion) in wealth.
Kenya is among Amazon’s first African markets for the project, which aims to launch over 3,200 satellites by 2028.
The firm filed for a Network Facilities Provider licence from the CA last month, the basic approval allowing it to deploy communications infrastructure across the country.
Bezos’s firm has signed a deal with UK-based Vodafone, the ultimate parent firm of Kenya’s largest telco, Safaricom, to connect Leo to 4G and 5G mobile masts in remote areas across Africa. Service trials are set to start this year.
The March deal mirrors a similar Africa-wide move that Starlink’s parent SpaceX made with Safaricom’s parent Vodacom in November.
Airtel Africa also partnered with SpaceX last year to introduce Starlink’s direct satellite-to-cell (D2C) connectivity to all its 14 markets, including Kenya, where it is Safaricom’s main competitor.
Kenya as East Africa’s satellite hub
The number of Kenyans using satellite internet has surged since Starlink entered Kenya in July 2023. The company has been betting on lowering internet costs, including hardware acquisition and lease plans.
Starlink enjoys a first-mover advantage in Kenya’s satellite internet market and is the ninth-largest ISP overall, with a 0.9 percent share.
If approved, Amazon’s facility would become Kenya’s third major satellite ground station. The Kenya Space Agency also operates a gateway in Nairobi.
For Amazon, a Kenyan ground station could help address future capacity constraints due to high uptake once Amazon Leo becomes operational in the country.
To compete with the first mover, the company is dangling speeds double those of Starlink, which could shake up competition in Kenya’s internet market.
For a standard terminal, which Starlink offers download speeds of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps), Amazon is promising up to 400 Mbps, while commercial kits, which the Musk-owned firm offers up to 400 Mbps, Bezos’s company says it is delivering a 1,280 Mbps download rate.
The company has not provided pricing details yet, but experts speculate that Leo will present lower prices.
Faster speeds, bigger questions
The Kenyan facility would also allow the company to serve neighbouring markets from a regional hub, making Kenya East Africa’s satellite telecoms gateway.
Telecoms experts have, however, raised concerns over transmission from higher-power satellites, arguing it could result in harmful interference and impact the ground network services deployed by operators like Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya.
Transmission from the satellites creates increased noise levels that degrade the capacity of 3G, 4G and 5G networks, the analysts add, which is the backbone for delivery of high-speed internet services and voice.
Only about 100 gateway stations dedicated to LEO networks were operational worldwide as of the end of 2025, according to the consulting firm Deloitte.
