Australia is poised to gain a new high-speed satellite broadband option, with Amazon confirming plans to launch its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) service—now branded Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper)—from mid-2026 under a partnership with NBN Co.

The agreement, signed in August 2025, will see NBN integrate Amazon’s LEO satellite network into its infrastructure to improve connectivity in regional and remote areas. The move effectively represents a significant upgrade to NBN’s existing satellite services, which have long faced capacity and performance limitations.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has indicated the new network could deliver download speeds of up to 1 Gbps, positioning it as a direct competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink, which typically delivers between 45 Mbps and 280 Mbps in real-world conditions. Pricing and final speed tiers have not yet been disclosed, though hardware costs are expected to be subsidised for existing NBN satellite users.

While the mid-2026 launch timeline has been confirmed, it remains unclear when the service will be broadly available to consumers. Amazon has stated that select enterprise customers began testing the network in late 2025.

Several major organisations have already signed on. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue plan to use the service for in-flight Wi-Fi, while companies including AT&T, Vodafone, DirecTV Latin America and NASA have also entered agreements. Vodafone and Amazon previously demonstrated direct-to-mobile satellite communication, highlighting the network’s potential beyond fixed broadband.

Industry sources suggest Amazon Leo could deliver uplink speeds six to eight times faster than current Starlink performance, along with roughly double the download capacity. Amazon is also positioning the service as a lower-cost alternative with integrated access to its AWS cloud platform, targeting enterprise use cases involving data, analytics and AI.

However, Amazon’s LEO rollout remains behind schedule. The company currently has around 241 satellites in orbit, significantly fewer than Starlink’s constellation of roughly 10,000. In January, Amazon requested an extension from the US Federal Communications Commission on a July 2026 deadline requiring 1,600 satellites to be deployed, indicating it expects to have only about 700 operational by that time.

NBN has not publicly commented on the timeline or commercial details. Analysts say the partnership could help future-proof Australia’s satellite broadband capability by transitioning away from ageing geostationary systems toward scalable LEO networks, while also intensifying competition in a market currently dominated by Starlink.