Elon Musk’s Starlink has spent years turning low Earth orbit into valuable broadband real estate. Amazon, never one to ignore a promising delivery route, is preparing to route internet traffic through the same neighborhood. Formerly known as Project Kuiper, Amazon Leo is Amazon’s answer to Starlink—and it now wants to reach your phone without asking you to carry a satellite dish.
The main Leo network uses more than 3,000 planned satellites to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband through three dedicated antennas: Leo Nano, Leo Pro, and Leo Ultra. Full-scale deployment began in April 2025, and more than 390 satellites are already in orbit. Amazon expects to begin rolling out fixed broadband service across its initial coverage bands later in 2026.
The newly proposed Amazon Leo Direct-to-Device system goes further. Amazon has applied to the FCC for permission to deploy up to 5,105 additional satellites capable of delivering voice calls, messaging, data, and emergency services directly to compatible smartphones and other mobile devices. Deployment is scheduled to begin in 2028.
Spread across five orbital shells between 510 and 580 km (317 and 360 miles) above Earth, the satellites will use Globalstar’s L-band and S-band spectrum to communicate with devices. Ka-band and V-band links will connect them to ground stations, while optical links will pass traffic between satellites.
Onboard signal processing, digital beamforming, beam-hopping, dual-polarization reception, and adaptive modulation will help direct capacity where it is needed and keep interference under control. Amazon plans to work with mobile operators rather than replace them, filling gaps where cell towers are impractical or unavailable.
Leo already has agreements involving Vodafone, DirecTV, Herotel, Australia’s NBN, and Apple. So yes, your next weak mobile signal may be rescued from space. The satellites still cannot help if you forgot to charge your phone. Meanwhile, you can learn more about Amazon LEO here.
Images: Amazon.
