Amazon’s long-delayed satellite internet service is finally close to actually launching. In his most recent letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company is “close” to launching Leo, Amazon’s low-Earth orbit satellite internet service, and expects it to be operational in mid-2026.
This means Amazon is much closer to finally challenging SpaceX’s Starlink, even if it still arrives years later than its biggest rival.
When will the Starlink rival appear?
Jassy said Amazon already has 200 low-orbit satellites in space and plans to add “a few thousand more” in the coming years. But the first release is scheduled to start in the middle of this year. As a reminder, Leo was originally conceived as Project Kuiper in 2019 and renamed last year
Amazon has announced that it has already secured revenue commitments from corporate and government customers. However, this isn’t your typical consumer broadband play. Jassy claims that Leo will be integrated with Amazon Web Services, allowing companies and governments to move data back and forth for storage, analytics and AI. This gives Amazon a very obvious advantage over Starlink. Leo not only sells connectivity, but also the broader AWS-based ecosystem.
Why Amazon believes it can convince people
Starlink conversions could actually be real. The executive said Delta Air Lines has selected Leo as its future inflight Wi-Fi provider and will begin deploying it on 500 aircraft starting in 2028. Leo’s other customers include JetBlue, AT&T, Vodafone, DIRECTV Latin America, Australia’s national broadband network and NASA.
Amazon’s list of early customers signals to the world that companies are at least willing to bet that Leo can become a credible second option in the satellite internet market. However, Amazon is still catching up with Starlink, which already has nearly 10,000 satellites in space.
