Amazon Satellite Network Gets A Rebrand — and Drops Its Affordability Pitch

Amazon’s budding outer net programme is nary longer called Project Kuiper. It is now known simply arsenic “Leo.” The sanction alteration comes arsenic nan institution appears to beryllium shifting its attraction from “unserved aliases underserved” communities to securing larger commercialized contracts.

The outer web has been successful nan useful since 2019 and, arsenic Amazon tells it, nan sanction Project Kuiper was only ever expected to beryllium temporary. Leo is simply a motion to nan network’s location successful what’s known arsenic low-Earth orbit, commonly referred to successful nan abstraction manufacture arsenic “LEO.”

As Amazon worked toward launching nan first Kuiper satellites earlier this year, nan institution boasted that nan task was an “initiative to summation world broadband access” pinch a noble-sounding “mission to bring fast, affordable broadband” to communities that aren’t well-served by accepted net providers.

But, arsenic TechCrunch antecedently noted, nan institution has changed nan connection it uses to picture nan work successful caller months arsenic it inked deals pinch Airbus and JetBlue, putting nan web much squarely successful title pinch SpaceX’s Starlink service.

Amazon didn’t respond to requests for comment.

An archived type of nan main FAQ page for Kuiper — published successful precocious 2024 — puts nan aforementioned “mission” to service those communities correct astatine nan apical of nan post. Affordability is mentioned 3 times throughout, pinch Amazon calling it a “key rule of Project Kuiper.”

“Amazon has a longstanding committedness to debased prices, and tons of acquisition building popular, low-cost devices for illustration Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick,” sounds nan reply to a mobility connected nan archived station astir really overmuch Kuiper work will cost. “We’re applying a akin attack pinch Project Kuiper.”

That question-and-answer astir costs is now gone from the Leo FAQ, and location is nary mention of “affordability” anyplace connected nan page.

The connection astatine nan apical of nan caller FAQ is besides different. It states that Leo is “Amazon’s debased Earth orbit outer network, designed to supply fast, reliable net to customers and communities beyond nan scope of existing networks.”

While nan Leo FAQ mentions that mediocre connectivity tin “create an economical disadvantage for people, businesses, and different organizations operating successful unserved and underserved parts of nan world,” nan institution is little circumstantial than it utilized to beryllium astir putting those communities beforehand and halfway successful nan customer pipeline.

Amazon Leo’s caller website is moreover much blatant astir really it is prioritizing location and commercialized net service. It promotes nan expertise to make “seamless video calls, watercourse 4K videos,” and “handle your full family’s net needs,” arsenic good arsenic nan truth that Leo is “[f]lexible, scalable, enterprise-ready.”

The thought of utilizing Leo “even successful agrarian and distant locations” is brought up arsenic almost an afterthought connected nan main website, and location is nary mention of costs aliases affordability.

Despite each this, connected Thursday, Amazon posted a flashy video astir nan sanction alteration connected X. Among different things, it shows a kid utilizing her machine to do homework, master drift racing, ambulance workers connected a distant road, a husbandman utilizing a tablet, and a mates dancing successful a laundromat. Along pinch nan video, it wrote: “New name, aforesaid mission.”