FCC clears Amazon Leo to boost satellite broadband coverage and cover polar regions

Amazon has won the Federal Communications Commission’s approval to go ahead with its plan to launch thousands of second-generation Amazon Leo satellites for its broadband internet network, even though the first-generation constellation is far from complete.

The approval would add more than 4,500 satellites to the previously authorized constellation of 3,232 Gen 1 spacecraft, expanding coverage to the entire globe, including the poles.

“Amazon Leo Gen 1 performance is impressive on its own, but lots to look forward to with Leo Gen 2: More capacity, more coverage (including polar) and additional throughput — good for customers everywhere, and especially important for big enterprise/gov customers who want max performance to move large amounts of data through our network,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Amazon Leo, said today in a LinkedIn posting.

The upgraded constellation will have added capability for offering high-speed services such as satellite TV and 5G via the Ku-band and V-band. SpaceX’s Starlink network, which is the dominant player in the market for satellite broadband services, already makes use of those frequency bands.

While the FCC approved Amazon’s use of most of the frequencies it asked for, it deferred Amazon’s request to operate in the 20.2-21.2 GHz and 30.3-31.0 GHz ranges of the Ka-band. The agency also brushed aside challenges to Amazon’s requests from Iridium and Viasat.

Over the past year, Amazon has launched 180 Gen 1 satellites, and another 32 are due to be sent into low Earth orbit by a European-built Ariane 6 rocket this week. That tally is far short of the 1,616 satellites that the FCC is requiring Amazon to launch by the end of July. Last month, Amazon asked the FCC to extend the deadline for that halfway-point milestone to 2028. The company pledged to have all 3,232 Gen 1 satellites in orbit by mid-2029, as required.

In today’s grant of approval, the FCC said that half of the newly authorized satellites must be launched by February 2032, and that all of them must be put into operation by February 2035.