- Amazon Leo is testing its enterprise-grade satellite broadband service prior to general availability sometime in 2026
- The company also introduced its highest-grade customer terminal
- But a spokesperson said Amazon Leo’s satellite constellation still has a way to go in terms of 24/7 satellite coverage
Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is previewing its enterprise-grade satellite broadband service to a select group of companies. The private preview will enable testing ahead of a broader rollout to enterprises and residences in 2026.
Companies initially trialing the service include Hunt Energy, JetBlue, Vanu and Crane Worldwide Logistics.
An Amazon Leo spokesperson told Fierce Network, “We have a broad mix of customers, some of whom are also customers of AWS. We’ll expand service to more customers, including residential users, as we add coverage and capacity to the network in 2026. We’ll share details as we get closer to general availability.”
Amazon Leo only has 150 satellites in orbit at this time. Fierce asked if these are enough to provide 24x7 coverage for an enterprise.
“We’ve made a ton of progress already this year with six successful missions sending more than 150 satellites to orbit; our next mission is coming up on December 15 to deploy another 27 satellites; and we’re processing satellites for the next missions after that,” said the spokesperson. “We need more satellites up before we can offer 24-hour coverage, and we expect to accelerate deployment in the coming months as we begin launching on new heavy-lift rockets like Vulcan, New Glenn and Ariane 6 that can carry more satellites per launch.”
Amazon Leo Ultra terminal
Amazon also announced its new terminal — Amazon Leo Ultra — for use by enterprise customers. The full-duplex phased array antenna provides download speeds of up to 1 Gbps and upload speeds up to 400 Mbps.
The spokesperson said, “We have a range of customer terminals to give our customers flexibility. Leo Ultra is the most powerful antenna in our lineup, specifically designed for demanding enterprise applications.”
Amazon’s standard customer terminal for most users is the Leo Pro, offering downlink speeds of up to 400 Mbps in an 11”x11” package, and the Leo Nano is a 7x7” model that delivers downlink speeds up to 100 Mbps.
Amazon designed its own satellites, customer terminals and custom silicon in-house from the ground up.
Its customer terminals use phased array antennas to electronically steer beams to Amazon Leo satellites passing overheard. “That means we don’t need moving parts to track the satellites as they pass, which simplifies installation and improves reliability,” the spokesperson explained. “Phased arrays were historically very large, very expensive antennas predominantly used for defense applications. One of our earliest milestones for Amazon Leo was drastically reducing the size and cost of a phased array so that we could make our customer terminals affordable.”
For the Leo Pro and Leo Nano customer terminals, Amazon overlaid transmit and receive phased array antennas to deliver high performance while reducing size—the first time that had been done in the Ka-band. For its Leo Ultra terminals, the transmit and receive antennas are side by side to maximize performance and allow for full duplex operation, which means the antenna can simultaneously transmit and receive data at high speeds.
Amazon is not yet saying how much its terminals, or its satellite service, cost.