Vodafone teams up with Amazon's satellites to connect masts in Europe and Africa

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Mobile company Vodafone said on Monday it had ‌signed a deal with Amazon ‌Leo, the U.S. company's low Earth orbit satellite network, ​to connect 4G and 5G mobile masts in remote areas in Europe and Africa.

Amazon Leo will offer connections of ‌up to 1 ⁠Gbps for download and 400 Mbps for upload to link ⁠Vodafone's network to masts in hard-to-reach locations, saving the expense of installing fibre, ​Vodafone said.

Vodafone ​will start using ​Amazon Leo to ‌connect mobile base stations in Germany and other European countries this year before progressively rolling it out across Africa through its subsidiary Vodacom, it said.

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

Vodafone separately plans to ​offer satellite ​connections to its customers using standard smartphones with its partner AST SpaceMobile, ​but has ‌yet to set a date for ​services to begin.

(Reporting by Paul SandleEditing ​by Peter Graff)