Nairobi, June 8 -- 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 transmi...