Amazon’s long-delayed satellite internet service is finally getting close to actually launching. In his latest letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company is “on the verge” of launching Leo, Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite internet service, and expects it to go live in mid-2026.
This puts Amazon much closer to finally challenging SpaceX’s Starlink, even if it is still arriving years later than its biggest rival.
When does the Starlink rival drop?
Jassy said Amazon already has 200 low-orbit satellites in space and plans to add a “few thousand more” in the years ahead. But the first release is set to kick off in the middle of this year. To recall, Leo was originally conceived as Project Kuiper back in 2019, being renamed last year
Amazon has revealed that it has already secured revenue commitments from enterprise and government customers. But this is not a typical consumer broadband play. Jassy claims that Leo will integrate with Amazon Web Services so enterprises and governments can move data back and forth for storage, analytics, and AI. This gives Amazon a very obvious angle against Starlink. Leo isn’t just selling connectivity, it is also selling the broader AWS-powered ecosystem.
Why Amazon thinks it can win people over
Starlink converts might actually be real. The executive said that Delta Air Lines has selected Leo as its future onboard WiFi provider and will begin using it on 500 planes in 2028. Other names mentioned include JetBlue, AT&T, Vodafone, DIRECTV Latin America, Australia’s national broadband network, and NASA, among Leo’s customers.
Amazon’s list of early customers signals to the world that companies are at least willing to bet Leo can become a credible second option in the satellite internet market. But that said, Amazon is still playing catch-up with Starlink, which already has nearly 10,000 satellites in space.