(Credit: PCMag)
Amazon’s long-awaited Starlink competitor, Leo, finally has a rough launch date for “mid-2026,” according to CEO Andy Jassy.
In his annual letter to shareholders, published Wednesday, Jassy says the satellite internet service is on the “verge” of arriving. "While Amazon Leo is officially scheduled to launch in mid-2026, we already have meaningful revenue commitments from enterprises and governments," he writes, referencing recent deals the company has made with Delta, JetBlue, and others.
Leo faces an uphill battle against Starlink, a rival SpaceX service that already has over 10 million active customers worldwide. But Jassy claims Leo will offer faster speeds, especially for uploads, after Amazon Leo launched a private beta focused on gigabit speeds.
“First, the performance will be stronger (about six to eight times better on uplink, and two times better on downlink) than what customers have access to now,” Jassy says, likely alluding to Starlink. “Second, this performance will come at a lower cost than alternatives."
The other benefit is how Leo is designed to directly connect with Amazon’s AWS cloud service. “Leo will seamlessly integrate with AWS to enable enterprises and governments to move data back and forth for storage, analytics, and AI,” Jassy adds.
(Credit: Amazon)Still, Jassy didn’t say whether Amazon plans to serve both consumers and enterprise users during the initial launch. The company’s current beta is limited to select enterprise customers. Pricing hasn't been announced, but Amazon has developed three dish models for the upcoming satellite internet system.
The other main hurdle for Leo has been the numerous delays in launching the required satellites. Currently, Leo spans about 240 satellites, which likely isn’t enough to provide global, robust coverage.
The delays have been so severe that Amazon expects to miss a regulatory deadline to launch half of its 3,200-satellite constellation by late July. The company has asked the Federal Communications Commission for an extension or waiver, saying it expects only about 700 satellites will be in orbit by the deadline.
(Credit: PCMag)"By this date, Amazon Leo also expects to have its customer terminals in the hands of more enterprise and government customers, and to be poised to roll out service more broadly in the US and across the globe,” the company told the FCC in January. (For perspective, Starlink kicked off an initial beta service in late 2020 with about 800 satellites.)
To convince the FCC to grant the extension, Amazon says it spent billions “to secure launch contracts through Q1 2029.” Last month, the company also talked up its efforts to double Leo’s launch frequency and pack more satellites into each rocket.
“With a few thousand more satellites launching in the coming years, the constellation is expanding rapidly,” Jassy says in his letter.