Amazon Leo has requested the Federal Communications Fee to approve its plan to launch as much as 5,105 satellites able to offering space-based connectivity for cellular units.
“Our plan is to start out deploying in 2028, and we’re excited to work with companions to make it occur,” Chris Weber, vice chairman of enterprise and product for Amazon Leo, mentioned on X.
The direct-to-device community, Amazon Leo D2D, would complement Amazon’s satellite tv for pc community for high-speed web service through fastened antennas. It might additionally leverage the present direct-to-device community operated by Globalstar, which is within the midst of a merger with Amazon.
To date, greater than 390 Amazon Leo satellites have been launched into low Earth orbit, and Amazon says it plans to start out rolling out industrial service later this 12 months. The corporate plans to have 3,232 first-generation satellites in orbit by mid-2029, and the FCC has already given the go-ahead for greater than 4,500 second-generation satellites that will give an additional enhance to community protection.
This newest transfer, which was anticipated ever because the plans for buying Globalstar had been introduced in April, goals to capitalize on the rising curiosity in direct-to-device connectivity.
“Within the massive elements of the world the place cell phones function the first technique of web connection, the Leo D2D System will give clients better pace and throughput to increase what they will accomplish as we speak,” Amazon mentioned in a information launch. “The system is designed to achieve any appropriate cellular machine — together with any of the rising variety of smartphones from main producers which have satellite-capable chipsets inbuilt.”
Along with providers for particular person customers, direct-to-device service can present uninterrupted communications for catastrophe response, world fleet administration, distant operations throughout worksites and provide chains, and connectivity for distant sensors, Amazon mentioned.
Globalstar’s community already helps emergency SOS, dead-zone texting and roadside help for appropriate iPhones and Apple Watch fashions, and Amazon mentioned it could collaborate with Apple on future satellite tv for pc providers utilizing the expanded community.
The FCC software requires deploying satellites in 5 orbital shells, ranging in altitude from 510 to 580 kilometers (317 to 360 miles). The satellites would talk with one another through optical laser hyperlinks, with cellular units utilizing L-band and S-band radio frequencies, and with Amazon floor stations through Ka-band and V-band frequencies.
Amazon Leo has already introduced partnerships with telecom operators together with Vodafone, DirecTV, Herotel and Australia’s Nationwide Broadband Community. Amazon mentioned its D2D service would assist these companions fill of their protection gaps.
Direct-to-device is an rising frontier in connectivity, however that frontier is already beginning to get crowded. SpaceX’s Starlink Cell community is at present main the pack, in partnership with T-Cell and different telecom operators all over the world. Different gamers embody AST SpaceMobile, Orbcomm, Viasat, Lynk World and Iridium.
In its software, Amazon pledged that its community could be structured to reduce interference with different networks.
