Amazon Eyes 2026 Entry to Satellite Internet Market Dominated by Musk's Starlink
Key takeaways
- Amazon is moving forward, as planned, with its Leo satellite network after CEO Andy Jassy acknowledged in a letter to shareholders last week that the project had hit a major delay.
- "It will be one of two offerings that are on the current technology edge, and I think that we will have a meaningful advantage in performance," Jassy said during the call.
- It sounds like a numbers game, but according to an optimistic Jassy, Amazon's acquisition of satellite network Globalstar is a massively important step in getting Leo off the ground (figuratively).
Amazon is moving forward, as planned, with its Leo satellite network after CEO Andy Jassy acknowledged in a letter to shareholders last week that the project had hit a major delay. During the retail giant's earnings call on Wednesday, Jassy teased the global value of the low-Earth-orbit communications network when the commercial service launches, which he said would be "in a few months."
Amazon Leo already has deals in place with companies, including Delta Airlines (which has committed half of its fleet to connect with the service in 2028), JetBlue, AT&T, Vodafone, DirecTV and NASA, and is positioning itself as a major competitor to Elon Musk's Starlink service with ambitions to provide high-speed internet at an affordable price worldwide.
"It will be one of two offerings that are on the current technology edge, and I think that we will have a meaningful advantage in performance," Jassy said during the call. "I think we'll be about two times better on the downlink than existing alternatives, and about six times better on the uplink performance than existing alternatives."