Amazon is rebranding its formidable effort to increase world entry to high-speed web: Venture Kuiper will now be often known as Amazon Leo.
The Seattle-based tech large introduced Thursday that it was renaming its satellite tv for pc broadband mission within the midst of deploying the tools that may assist energy all of it.
Leo is a nod to “low Earth orbit,” the place Amazon has to date launched greater than 150 satellites as a part of a constellation that may finally embody greater than 3,200.
In a weblog put up, Amazon mentioned the 7-year-old Venture Kuiper started “with a handful of engineers and some designs on paper” and like most early Amazon tasks “this system wanted a code identify.” The staff was impressed by the Kuiper Belt, a hoop of asteroids within the outer photo voltaic system.
A brand new web site for Amazon Leo proclaims “a brand new period of web is coming,” as Amazon says its satellites can assist serve “billions of individuals on the planet who lack high-speed web entry, and tens of millions of companies, governments, and different organizations working in locations with out dependable connectivity.”
Amazon mentioned it’s going to start rolling out service as soon as it’s added extra protection and capability to the community. Particulars about pricing and availability haven’t been introduced.
Early clients and companions embody JetBlue, which in September turned the primary airline to signal on with Leo, promising quicker and extra dependable inflight Wi-Fi. L3Harris, DIRECTV Latin America, Sky Brasil, and NBN Co., Australia’s Nationwide Broadband Community operator, are additionally signed as much as deploy the service.
Throughout a take a look at in September, executives touted information transmission speeds from the constellation in extra of a gigabit per second.
Amazon’s major satellite tv for pc manufacturing facility is in Kirkland, Wash., with among the elements produced at Leo’s headquarters in close by Redmond. Amazon additionally has a $140 million, 100,000-square-foot payload processing facility at Kennedy Area Heart that prepares satellites for upcoming launches.
Amazon’s multibillion-dollar bid to meet up with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation started in earnest in April with the launch of the primary 27 satellites.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy posted on X concerning the identify change and mentioned tasks corresponding to Echo and Kindle additionally had code names early on. And Amazon Units & Companies chief Panos Panay mentioned that he was “psyched for what’s forward” in his personal put up on X.
