Amazon As LEO Capacity Wholesaler

The author argues that the stodgy business community is underestimating Amazon's threat to Starlink. Amazon is developing a wholesale model for LEO capacity that dovetails perfectly with its terrestrial network superiority over Starlink. At this point Starlink is pretty much everyone's enemy: "While Starlink also offers business tiers, its ambition to become a global consumer telco makes it a threat to carriers. For a company like Verizon or AT&T, Starlink is a frenemy: a partner today, a predator tomorrow." In contrast, Amazon wants to be everyone's friend. Amazon's dedicated 1 gigabit Ultra terminal will be sold to carriers that will deliver Internet to the premise via 5G connections. In rural Michigan I encountered households whose home routers were linked to the Internet via 5G mobile frequencies. Mobile carriers have found 5G demand to be very weak. Hence their spectrum is underutilized. Here's the solution. Amazon realizes that success in this endevour requires very cheap terminals. That is why it designed its own chip for these units. The big satellite signal receiver at right is the Ultra-LEO.

Interestingly enough, Musk has expressed great annoyance at Bezos moving into his backyard. Musk's fear is quite rational. He is running a startup without the huge financial assets of his competitor. Moreover, Starklink has had little success in the biggest addressable market, namely the Global South. His service is expensive. The terminals overpriced. Customer service non-existent.

My advice to ignore the Silicon Valley crowd with their group think. Most VC funds are losers. They do worse than a S&P 500 index fund or ETF.

https://news.satnews.com/2026/01/02/when-aws-grew-wings-the-boring-genius-of-amazon-leo/

Photograph of Amazon LEO's Satellite Dishes


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