Amazon Leo nets anchor maritime resellers

TAMPA, Fla. — Amazon announced its first low Earth orbit maritime broadband reseller agreements Feb. 10, as it prepares to deploy another batch of satellites this week on the inaugural flight of Europe’s Ariane 64 rocket.

The company’s Amazon Leo constellation has partnered with U.S.-based MTN and ELCOME of the United Arab Emirates, both of which also have international reseller arrangements with rival SpaceX’s operational Starlink service.

Initial Amazon Leo services are slated for this year following tests with potential customers; however, the company has not announced specific service launch dates. As with in-flight connectivity, maritime services are expected to require more satellite coverage than other industries before services can commence.

According to Amazon, maritime customers will be able to connect to the constellation with either its Amazon Leo Pro antenna, which touts speeds up to 400 megabits per second, or the Leo Ultra terminal designed for download speeds up to 1 gigabits per second.

Launch barrier

Amazon has launched about 180 of a planned 3,232 satellites after kicking off deployments in April.

The company recently requested at least a two-year extension from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for a July deadline to deploy half of the constellation.

Satellites deployed so far have flown on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rockets as part of a multi-provider manifest announced in 2022.

Amazon has contracted 18 launches as part of the agreement with Arianespace, which debuted a lower-lift version of Ariane 6 in 2024.

The Ariane 64 variant, equipped with four solid rocket boosters instead of two, is slated to launch 32 Amazon Leo satellites Feb. 12 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Arianespace has projected as many as eight total Ariane 6 launches this year after launching the rocket four times in 2025. Several of those are earmarked for Amazon, Arianespace’s largest customer.