Amazon Leo is poised to launch limited Internet service later this year, but it’s far behind Starlink — several thousand satellites behind.
Amazon launched another 29 satellites into low-Earth orbit on Thursdaybringing its total to 396 and positioning the company to begin offering Internet service to relatively small customers. Leo’s business and product VP Chris Weber posted to X that the company will be able to “support continuous service at all starting latitudes.”
“There’s still a lot of work to do — including getting all these new satellites into orbit — but we’ve completed enough launches for the first service this year, and future missions will add coverage and power,” he added.
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But Leo starts the race that started Starlink in 2019 with its first launch. Trillionaire Elon Musk’s company has about 10,000 satellites in orbit and provides internet to more than 150 countries. Starlink also has or will have internet service on more than 200 airlines, including United Airlines, Air France, Alaska Airlines and British Airways.
In comparison, Leo will have limited service available to US customers later this year — coverage and pricing to be determined later — and is contracted by two airlines, JetBlue Airways in 2027 and Delta Air Lines in 2028. It will take a few years and thousands more satellites launched by Leo to be able to provide widespread coverage in the US and elsewhere.
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Hans Geerdes, a strategist at R&D firm CableLabs, said Starlink and its competitors pose a major threat to fixed Internet service providers such as Xfinity, Verizon Home Internet and T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. “I think everyone who uses fixed broadband should be very concerned,” Geerdes said earlier this year. “It’s basically the second coming of fixed telephony, but with better economics and more brutal competitive behavior.”
Leo has quick eyes for satellite deployment
Thursday’s Leo launch was the last of eight by its Atlas V rocket, which was 100 percent successful. Leo will launch the next one with its heavy-duty Vulcan rocket, which can carry more satellites at a faster launch rate.
Melissa Wuerl, director of launch programs for Leo, said in a statement that the company has “hundreds of ready-to-fly satellites parked” at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The company reportedly has nearly 100 projects planned at a cost of $82 billion. The goal is to have 7,727 satellites by 2035.
The Leo and Starlink satellites operate approximately 350 to 500 miles above the earth, in what is known as low earth orbit (hence the name Amazon is derived from the word LEO). This lower altitude allows satellites to deliver faster internet speeds and keeps it more affordable to put satellites into orbit.
Amazon is also hoping to capture a large portion of the Internet market directly on the device. Device-specific Internet basically means that a person’s cell phone or other device connects directly to a satellite. Key to that strategy was the company’s $11.6 billion purchase in April of Globalstar, whose low-Earth-orbiting satellites provide coverage in more than 120 countries.