Amazon rebrands its Starlink competitor to Amazon Leo
Amazon is making its satellite communication network a bit more official with a rebrand. The company has announced that Project Kuiper will now be called "Amazon Leo," a nod to the fact that its network is composed of satellites in low Earth orbit. Project Kuiper's journey to becoming a proper Amazon brand has been a long one. The company introduced the project in 2019 with the goal of offering internet in regions without a reliable connection, through a proposed constellation of over 3,000 satellites that could blanket 95 percent of the global population in high-speed internet. That constellation has yet to fully take shape, however. In the years following the Project Kuiper reveal, Amazon launched prototype satellites, detailed plans for a space laser mesh network and showed off the antennas customers will use to connect to its network, but it didn't actually launch the first 27 satellites in its constellation until April 2025. In comparison, its competitor Starlink has had a much faster expansion. SpaceX launched the Starlink satellite internet service in beta in 2020, and has rapidly expanded it since then. Now SpaceX has a deal with T-Mobile for satellite-enabled texting, and has struck up partnerships with airlines to test or offer internet connection on flights. Rebranding Project Kuiper to Leo suggests Amazon is finally ready to think about its satellite network as a product in its own right, but the company still has some catching up to do.Amazon hasn't shared a date for when its satellite internet service will be widely available for personal and commercial use, but you can sign-up on the Amazon Leo website to receive updates as the company works towards launch.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/amazon-rebrands-its-starlink-competitor-to-amazon-leo-214453569.html?src=rss