Amazon has enough satellites to launch its competitor, Starlink

Amazon says it now has enough satellites operating in low Earth orbit to light up its internet rival Starlink. With its launch last night, Amazon Leo is just that 396 The satellites have been deployed, which is “enough to support continuous service across prime latitudes,” according to Chris Weber, vice president of business and products at Amazon Leo. This puts the company on the right track to meet its needs The target is “mid-2026”. For commercial availability. Just don’t expect miracles on the first day.

SpaceX went live with it “Better than nothing beta” Back in 2020 when it had nearly 900 satellites operating in low Earth orbit. It initially served a narrow range of users in the upper part of the United States and Canada He complained About frequent outages and high sensitivity to obstacles, with speeds between 50Mbps and 150Mbps, and latency from 20ms to 40ms. By 2022, the service and coverage areas were already established Significantly improved.

Early adopters of Amazon’s Leo service can expect the same initially, as future satellite launches help improve performance, increase capacity, and expand global coverage.

SpaceX currently has more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in operation, providing robust Internet connectivity on land, sea and air in more than 160 countries. Performance varies by dish, paid service level, time of day, and user location, but right now we’re talking average download speeds of 200Mbps, uploads ranging from 10Mbps to 40Mbps, and latency of around 25ms. It will be years before Amazon can boast similar performance numbers as it continues its planned launch of 3,232 Leo satellites. Right now, it’s well behind schedule, partly due to Jeff Bezos’ plan. Struggling to get a reusable New Glenn from Blue Origin Launching the vehicle in a regular operation.