Amazon Leo satellite broadband will be commercially available next year

Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper), a satellite broadband business under Amazon, is previewing its enterprise level satellite broadband services to selected companies. This non-public preview will be tested before large-scale promotion and is expected to be fully launched to both corporate and residential users by 2026.

The companies participating in the initial service testing include Hunt Energy, JetBlue, Vanu, and Crane Worldwide Logistics. An Amazon Leo spokesperson told Fierce Network, “Our customer base is broad, some of whom are also AWS customers. As we increase network coverage and capacity by 2026, we will expand our services to more customers, including residential users. As we approach full market launch, we will share more details.”

Satellite deployment progress and coverage plan

Currently, Amazon Leo has only 150 satellites in orbit. Regarding the question of whether these satellites are sufficient to provide 24×7 coverage for businesses, the spokesperson responded, “We have made significant progress this year, sending over 150 satellites into orbit through six successful missions; our next mission will deploy an additional 27 satellites on December 15th; and we are processing satellites for subsequent missions. We need to deploy more satellites to provide 24-hour coverage, and as we begin using new heavy rockets such as Vulcan, New Glenn, and Ariane 6 that can carry more satellites at a time, we expect to accelerate deployment in the coming months.”

Terminal product line and technical characteristics

Amazon has also released a new terminal for enterprise customers – the Amazon Leo Ultra. This full duplex phased array antenna can provide download speeds of up to 1 Gbps and upload speeds of 400 Mbps. The spokesperson explained, “We have a range of customer terminals that provide flexibility to our customers. The Leo Ultra is the most powerful antenna in our product line, designed specifically for demanding enterprise applications.”

The standard customer terminal for most users is Leo Pro, which provides up to 400 Mbps downlink speed in an 11 inch x 11 inch size; And Leo Nano is a 7×7 inch model that can provide up to 100 Mbps downstream speed. Amazon designed satellites, customer terminals, and custom chips from scratch.

Its customer terminal uses phased array antennas to electronically redirect the beam towards the Amazon Leo satellite flying overhead. The spokesperson explained, “This means we don’t need moving parts to track overhead satellites, simplifying installation and improving reliability. Phased array antennas have historically been very large and expensive equipment, mainly used in the defense field. One of Amazon Leo’s earliest milestones was significantly reducing the size and cost of phased arrays, making them affordable for our customer terminals.”

For Leo Pro and Leo Nano customer terminals, Amazon will stack transmit and receive phased array antennas together, providing high performance while reducing size – this is the first implementation in the Ka band. For Leo Ultra terminals, the transmitting and receiving antennas are placed side by side to maximize performance and achieve full duplex operation, which means that the antennas can simultaneously transmit and receive data at high speeds.

Amazon has not yet disclosed the specific prices of its terminal or satellite services.