Amazon has begun shipping its most advanced phased-array terminal, dubbed Leo Ultra, to select enterprise customers as part of a preview programme for its satellite broadband service Amazon Leo — the rebranded successor to Project Kuiper. The company claims the terminal can deliver download speeds up to 1 gigabit per second and upload speeds reaching 400 megabits per second, representing a bold push to challenge incumbent players such as Starlink.
Leo Ultra runs on Amazon-designed silicon and uses a full-duplex phased-array antenna engineered to operate under harsh environmental conditions, with no moving parts and a weather-resistant build. The terminal supports high-throughput, low-latency connectivity, making it suitable for demanding enterprise tasks such as cloud-native deployments, video conferencing, remote infrastructure monitoring, and direct integration with Amazon Web Services via private networking and “Direct to AWS” links.
The 1 Gbps / 400 Mbps target marks the fastest commercial phased-array terminal available to date and places Amazon Leo in direct competition with Starlink — which currently reports business-tier speeds in the low hundreds of megabits per second and has committed to enabling gigabit-level service in 2026. Amazon says Leo Ultra is its first production-grade offering and that the enterprise preview will help refine the service prior to wide commercial rollout.
To power the system, Amazon has deployed more than 150 low-Earth orbit satellites as of late November 2025. The full constellation is planned to comprise over 3,200 satellites operating across multiple orbital shells, using optical inter-satellite links for high-speed communication and a global network of ground stations and gateways for terrestrial connectivity. Amazon aims to complete deployment of at least half the constellation by mid-2026.
Amazon’s enterprise preview has drawn early interest from clients across industries such as aviation, energy, transportation and remote infrastructure. The company says the flexibility and cloud-native design of Leo — particularly with AWS integration — could make it attractive for businesses operating in remote or underserved regions where traditional broadband is unreliable or unavailable.
While Leo Ultra’s speed targets and enterprise-grade features are promising, observers note that real-world performance will depend on constellation density, capacity allocation, latency, weather resilience and sustained throughput under load. Amazon has not revealed pricing or service-level agreement details for either enterprise or consumer tiers.
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