Amazon’s $11.57 billion purchase of Globalstar, announced earlier this week, is its biggest move yet to catch up with Elon Musk’s Starlink, reports WSJ.
Starlink has about 10,000 satellites and serves over nine million users worldwide. In comparison, Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, has about 240 satellites in orbit right now.
Globalstar was founded in Louisiana in 1991 and has spent thirty years building up spectrum licenses and regulatory connections that are hard for newcomers to get. Its most valuable asset is Band 53, a midband spectrum from 2483.5 to 2495 MHz, which only Globalstar can use and is perfect for direct-to-device (D2D) communication.
In 2024, Apple invested $1.5 billion in Globalstar, buying a 20% stake and using about 85% of the company’s network to support Emergency SOS via satellite on iPhones and Apple Watch, as per a CNBC report. This gave Apple the power to block any sale, so Amazon needed and got Apple’s approval for the deal.
Alongside the merger, Amazon and Apple announced a long-term agreement under which Amazon Leo will provide satellite features for future iPhones and Apple Watch models, including Emergency SOS, messaging, Find My location sharing, and roadside assistance.
Amazon plans to launch its next-generation D2D satellite system in 2028. This system will use Band 53 to send voice, data, and messages straight to mobile devices. The full Amazon Leo network should have thousands of advanced satellites and support hundreds of millions of connections.
Globalstar’s current fleet of about 24 satellites, plus agreements for more than 50 additional satellites, will work together with Leo’s broadband system as a single network.
