Amazon targets Musk’s Starlink with satellite constellation for mobile services

Amazon is seeking to deploy the constellation by 2028 © Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Amazon plans to launch a constellation of more than 5,000 satellites to provide mobile phone services to consumers around the world, as it steps up its efforts to take on Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The tech giant said on Monday it has filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy the constellation by 2028. It said the system would provide voice, messaging, data and emergency services.

“Amazon looks forward to delivering on the promise of D2D [direct-to-device] connectivity, including to the millions of people living, travelling and working in places beyond the reach of existing networks today,” the company said in the filing.

The filing is the first step from Amazon into satellite mobile connections, which has until now been dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink service.

Musk’s group has signed partnerships with existing operators such as T-Mobile US and the UK’s Virgin Media O2 to provide phone services for customers where their conventional networks do not reach.

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Starlink operates across more than 150 countries, offering high-speed internet connections through its constellation of satellites.

Last month, the FT reported that Starlink may go one step further and launch a mobile service directly for US consumers, in a move that would upend the country’s multibillion-dollar cellular phone market.

Ben Harwood, analyst at New Street Research said the deployment of the constellation could cost “around $13-20bn”, provided its design was “broadly in line with peers” and its launches were largely conducted by Blue Origin, the rocket group owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Amazon’s move is set to intensify competition in the “direct-to-device” mobile market with others including AST Space Mobile, which has partnered with Vodafone.

Amazon said it would use the radio wave spectrum gained through its recent $11.6bn acquisition of…