Amazon says it now has enough satellites in low-Earth orbit to switch on its Starlink internet rival.
After last night’s launch, Amazon Leo has 396 satellites deployed, which is “enough to support continuous service across initial latitudes.”
Amazon Leo, business and product vice-president Chris Weber said the outfit was on course for its “mid-2026” target for commercial availability, provided nobody expects magic from day one.
According to The Verge, SpaceX went live with its “Better than nothing beta” in 2020, when it had almost 900 satellites operating in low Earth orbit. The service first covered a narrow band of users in the upper US and Canada, who moaned about frequent dropouts.
Speeds sat between 50 Mbps and 150 Mbps, with latency between 20ms and 40ms, which was decent enough if your alternative was rural broadband misery.
By 2022, the service and coverage areas had improved sharply, helped by SpaceX chucking more hardware into the sky.
Early users of Amazon’s Leo service should expect a similar start, with later satellite launches improving performance, boosting capacity and expanding global coverage.
SpaceX currently has more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in operation, providing internet on land, sea and air in more than 160 countries. Performance varies by dish, service level, time of day and location, but Starlink is now reaching median download speeds of about 200Mbps.
Uploads run between 10 Mbps and 40 Mbps, while latency hovers around 25ms, which is where Amazon would rather be sooner rather than later. It will be years before Amazon can shout about similar numbers, as it continues to launch its planned 3,232 Leo satellites.
For now, it is well behind schedule, partly thanks to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin struggling to get its reusable New Glenn rocket into regular service.
