The company is partnering with one of the country’s ISPs to connect hard-to-reach areas.
Amazon is bringing Leo, its satellite Internet service, to Uzbekistan. The company is partnering with a regional ISP called Uztelecom to “power satellite connectivity in remote and hard-to-reach areas” of the country.
Uztelecom already has quite an extensive reach, providing connectivity to 96 percent of communities. However, Uzbekistan has a diverse geography, with mountainous regions and isolated deserts. It can be difficult to deploy traditional cable internet in some of these areas, so that’s where Leo will step in to fill the gaps. Amazon states that “Leo is designed to complement Uztelecom’s existing infrastructure, extending connectivity where it is needed most.”
Leo hasn’t launched publicly yet, so we don’t know when the service in Uzbekistan will go live. The company is currently testing the service with employees and “select enterprise customers” ahead of some type of rollout later this year.
However, Leo has some significant catching up to do if it wants to be a true competitor to SpaceX and Starlink. Amazon currently has around 400 satellites in orbit and plans to install more than 3,000 in the near future. That’s not bad, but SpaceX currently has more than 11,000 satellites in orbit.
Amazon has made some moves behind the scenes, beyond this partnership in Uzbekistan. It recently partnered with Delta to potentially bring satellite internet to flights. It also bought Globalstar, the company that provides Apple’s emergency satellite connectivity.
