The news is in: Nigeria has issued seven-year satellite permits to Amazon’s low-Earth-orbit broadband network, Amazon LEO (formerly Project Kuiper), expanding the frontier of space-based internet competition as the nation races to close its deep digital access gap. Beginning in February, Amazon will operate alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink, whose footprint in Nigeria has grown rapidly since its 2023 debut.
In 2020, I wrote that Amazon was laying the foundation for a new technological order: “Amazon begins a new tech wave—spending $10 billion to deliver internet from space and possibly disintermediate current telcos by bundling cloud hosting, digital commerce, and broadband. With a small device, your AWS could run through Amazon’s pipes instead of MTN or 9mobile. And Amazon Prime movies, music, etc., would be meter-free because Amazon becomes the network carrier.”
That future is now at our doorstep. As satellite broadband hits maturity, Africans will confront a new decision matrix:
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Do I use Elon Musk’s Starlink, which delivers pure internet OR Amazon’s broadband, which delivers internet plus Prime Video, music, games, Champions League*, cloud hosting, and possibly more, all unmetered within Amazon’s ecosystem?
That, Good People, is the grand unification playbook: bundling connectivity, content, cloud, and commerce into one pipeline. It is Amazon’s integrated stack meeting Nigeria’s digital ambitions.
And that is why this license matters: it is not just another satellite approval; it is the beginning of a new competitive frontier where broadband becomes the gateway into an entire digital civilization. A really big gateway!
In finality, if Amazon secures broadcast rights for the Champions League, major European football, and the NBA, Elon Musk will not enjoy an automatic slam-dunk victory in Nigeria, or across Africa’s satellite broadband arena. The contest will shift from pure connectivity to connectivity plus content, and in that battleground, Amazon becomes a formidable force.
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The price will determine whether they are interested in 500k customers or 5 million. This market is never easy to win, so you just decide where you want to play and remain there.