AIBRIEF
Amazon Leo, Amazon's satellite internet service, is asking U.S. regulators to clear 5,105 satellites for direct to phone internet, the same Starlink service that recently texted Madrid wildfire users. The filing is a regulatory step, not a launch.
Amazon has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch up to 5,105 low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites for a service it calls Amazon Leo: a direct-to-device network, or satellite internet delivered to ordinary phones without a special antenna, sized to rival SpaceX's existing Starlink constellation. Amazon said deployment is targeted for 2028.
The FCC filing is a regulatory request, not approval. Review of a 5,000-satellite constellation typically runs 12 to 24 months, and Amazon has not specified a launch cadence. The 2028 date is a deployment target, not an operating network.
Amazon is positioning Leo against Starlink's direct-to-device service, which SpaceX has already moved from demonstration to consumer product, most recently offering free satellite texting to Movistar and MasOrange customers during wildfires near Madrid. Aviation connectivity is another arena where the two would compete. The Verge has tracked the direct-to-device race between the two operators.
Whether Amazon can close the deployment gap with Starlink, which already operates thousands of satellites in orbit, is the open question. The FCC docket and the DA-26-553 Kuiper Gen1 orbital parameters modification are on the public record. The consumer timeline is not.