Amazon has rebranded its ambitious satellite internet venture, transitioning from the code name Project Kuiper to the consumer-facing brand Amazon Leo as the company approaches commercial service launch after seven years of development.
The Seattle-based technology giant announced Thursday it was renaming its satellite broadband initiative amidst an intensive deployment phase where the company is launching hundreds of satellites and building ground infrastructure to support what will eventually become a global internet service competing directly with SpaceX’s Starlink.
The new name Leo references “low Earth orbit,” the orbital region where Amazon has deployed more than 150 satellites as part of a planned constellation that will ultimately include more than 3,200 spacecraft circling the planet at altitudes far below traditional communications satellites.
In a blog post explaining the transition, Amazon indicated the seven-year-old Project Kuiper began “with a handful of engineers and a few designs on paper” and, like most early Amazon projects, “the programme needed a code name.” The team drew inspiration from the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies and asteroids orbiting in the outer solar system beyond Neptune, a poetic reference to orbital mechanics that resonated with engineers but lacked the clarity needed for consumer marketing.
The rebranding from an internal code name to a market-facing brand signals Amazon’s confidence that the project has progressed from experimental development to imminent commercial availability. The transition mirrors how other Amazon initiatives like Echo smart speakers and Kindle e-readers shed their internal code names as they approached public launch, transforming from engineering projects into consumer products with carefully crafted brand identities.
A newly launched website for Amazon Leo proclaims “a new era of internet is coming,” positioning the service as addressing a massive global connectivity gap. Amazon emphasises its satellites can help serve “billions of people on the planet who lack high-speed internet access, and millions of businesses, governments, and other organisations operating in places without reliable connectivity.”
This messaging targets two distinct market segments: underserved populations in rural and remote areas where terrestrial broadband infrastructure is economically unviable, and enterprise customers requiring connectivity in challenging environments including maritime vessels, aircraft, remote industrial sites, and developing regions with inadequate telecommunications infrastructure.
Amazon stated it will begin rolling out service once it has added sufficient coverage and capacity to the network, acknowledging the constellation remains incomplete. Details about pricing structures, service tiers, availability timelines, and equipment costs have not been announced, leaving potential customers and industry observers speculating about how Amazon will position Leo competitively against established satellite internet providers.
Early customers and commercial partners provide glimpses into Amazon’s go-to-market strategy across diverse sectors. JetBlue became the first airline to commit to Leo in September, promising passengers faster and more reliable inflight Wi-Fi that addresses longstanding frustrations with slow, intermittent connectivity on commercial flights. The airline partnership represents a high-visibility deployment that will expose millions of travellers to the service whilst generating recurring revenue from a customer with aircraft operating globally.
Additional early adopters span multiple industries and geographies: L3Harris, a major aerospace and defence contractor; DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Brasil, satellite television providers seeking to bundle internet services; NBN Co., Australia’s National Broadband Network operator responsible for the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure; and Connected Farms, an agricultural connectivity company that signed on this week to bring internet access to remote farming operations.
This diverse customer roster demonstrates Amazon’s strategy of pursuing both direct-to-consumer residential internet service and business-to-business enterprise contracts, hedging against concentration risk whilst maximising revenue opportunities across market segments with distinct needs and willingness to pay.
Testing conducted in September validated the constellation’s technical capabilities, with executives reporting data transmission speeds exceeding one gigabit per second. This performance metric positions Leo competitively with terrestrial broadband services and significantly exceeds speeds available from traditional geostationary satellite internet providers, though it remains to be seen whether these peak speeds will be maintained as subscriber loads increase and the network approaches capacity.
