Prime Highlights:
- Amazon is requesting a 24-month extension from the FCC to continue deploying its Leo satellite network, aiming to provide fast, low-latency internet to homes, businesses, and governments.
- The company is already producing satellites faster than they can be launched, showing strong progress despite external delays.
Key Facts:
- Amazon plans to launch a total of 3,236 satellites, with about 1,600 originally scheduled by July 2026; the new proposed deadline is July 2028.
- Delays are caused by limited rocket availability, manufacturing issues, grounded launch vehicles, and spaceport capacity constraints.
Background
Amazon has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for more time to meet a deadline for its satellite internet service, Amazon Leo. The company had planned to launch about 1,600 satellites by July 2026 but has run into delays.
In a public filing on Friday, Amazon said the delays are caused by factors outside its control, such as limited rocket availability, manufacturing problems, grounded rockets, and spaceport limits. The company also said it is making satellites faster than they can be launched, which is why it needs more time.
Amazon is now requesting a 24-month extension, moving the deadline to July 2028, or for the FCC to waive the rule that half of its 3,236 planned satellites must be in orbit. This is part of its larger plan, first announced in 2019, to provide fast, low-latency internet to homes, businesses, and governments using square-shaped satellite terminals.
To speed up satellite deployment, Amazon has arranged more than 100 launches with various partners. This includes 10 launches with SpaceX and a dozen with Blue Origin, the company founded by Jeff Bezos. Since April, Amazon has already sent over 150 satellites into orbit and expects to reach about 700 by July, making it the second-largest satellite network in the sky. The next launch is scheduled for February 12, with 32 satellites aboard an Arianespace rocket.
Amazon Leo is entering a competitive market that includes SpaceX’s Starlink, which has over 9,000 satellites, and OneWeb, operated by Eutelsat, with more than 600 satellites. In November, Amazon offered an “enterprise preview” of Leo to select users ahead of a wider commercial rollout.
In its filing, Amazon said denying the extension could slow the FCC’s goal of expanding spectrum access and speeding up satellite deployment. The company added that Leo is close to providing U.S. customers with a competitive and innovative new internet option.
By requesting this flexibility, Amazon aims to keep its satellite launches on track and continue building a global internet service.
