There's a new name in satellite broadband, and it comes from a company you already know. Amazon Leo is Amazon's low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite network — a direct rival to Starlink, backed by the scale of Amazon and its cloud arm, AWS. If you run a remote or rural UK site, it's worth understanding what it is, what it promises, and how cautiously to read the timelines.
From Project Kuiper to Amazon Leo
You may have followed this project under its original name, Project Kuiper. In late 2025 Amazon rebranded the consumer-facing service as Amazon Leo — the "Leo" being a nod to low-earth orbit, the type of orbit the whole system depends on. The engineering programme is the same; the name is simply the one Amazon now uses when it talks to customers.
The goal is straightforward: put a large constellation of satellites into low orbit and sell broadband to homes, businesses and organisations — including places where fibre and reliable mobile coverage never arrived.
What "low-earth orbit" actually means
The distinction that matters is how far the satellite is from the ground. Traditional satellite broadband uses satellites in geostationary orbit, roughly 35,786 km up, which is why those services always felt sluggish — every packet travels an enormous distance and back. LEO satellites sit only a few hundred kilometres up, cutting the round trip dramatically and delivering latency that feels like a normal fixed line.
The trade-off is that a low satellite is always moving across the sky, so no single one stays overhead. That's why LEO networks need a large constellation of satellites plus a phased-array terminal that hands off from one satellite to the next without dropping your connection. If you want the physics behind why this matters for calls, VPNs and remote control, we've explained it in detail in geostationary vs low-earth-orbit satellite.
The AWS advantage
Amazon Leo's headline differentiator isn't the dish on the roof — it's what sits behind the network. Amazon owns AWS, the world's largest cloud platform, and the plan is to let Amazon Leo traffic route privately into AWS rather than crossing the public internet to get there.
For a household that makes little difference. For an enterprise running workloads in the cloud, it's genuinely interesting: a more direct, more private path between a remote site and the applications and data it relies on. If your business already lives in AWS, that integration story is worth watching closely — though, as ever, the detail will matter more than the pitch.
The terminals: Nano, Pro and Ultra
Amazon has announced three customer terminals aimed at different needs. The figures below are indicative, Amazon-announced numbers — real-world performance always depends on the site, the sky view and how busy the network is overhead.
- Nano — a compact terminal for smaller sites and portable use, with speeds quoted up to around 100 Mbps.
- Pro — the standard terminal for homes and typical business sites, quoted up to around 400 Mbps.
- Ultra — an enterprise-grade terminal quoted up to around 1 Gbps, aimed at demanding sites and heavier workloads.
The range is sensible: not every location needs a gigabit, and being able to match the hardware to the job keeps cost and power sensible too.
A direct competitor to Starlink
Amazon Leo and Starlink are the same kind of thing — LEO constellations delivering low-latency broadband to a phased-array dish. Starlink has a large head start, with a service that's already live and widely deployed. Amazon Leo is the newer entrant with deep pockets and the AWS angle behind it. Competition between the two should be good news for coverage, resilience and pricing over time. We've put the two side by side in Amazon Leo vs Starlink.
When can UK sites get it?
Here's where a little honesty helps. Amazon Leo is rolling out in phases as more satellites launch and ground stations come online — a network like this doesn't switch on everywhere at once. UK availability and exact timing are still firming up, so treat any specific date you see with caution and think of the service as coming rather than here.
The practical move is to register your interest now. That puts you in the queue, and it lets us plan around your site so that when capacity reaches your area you're ready to go rather than starting from scratch.
What it means for your site
For remote, rural and enterprise UK sites, a second serious LEO network is a good thing. More capacity in the sky means better resilience and more choice — and for cloud-heavy businesses, the AWS integration could be a real reason to prefer Amazon Leo when it lands.
RCG will deliver Amazon Leo the way we deliver every connection: as a managed service, not a box in a cupboard. That means a proper site survey to confirm sky view and siting, a static IP where you need one, 4G/5G failover so a single outage never takes you offline, clean integration with your existing network, and 24/7 monitoring so we spot problems before you do.
If Amazon Leo is on your radar, start with the Amazon Leo service page to register interest, or get in touch and we'll help you plan the right connection for your site — Amazon Leo, Starlink or a resilient mix of both.