Amazon’s Starlink competitor has just passed a milestone, but don’t expect perfect internet just yet
Amazon has taken a major step to launch its long-awaited satellite internet service. After its latest rocket launch, the company now has 396 Project Kuiper satellites in low-Earth orbit, enough to start providing continuous service to all selected regions. The milestone keeps Amazon on track for its previously announced goal of launching a commercial service by mid-2026.
However, history suggests that early adopters should not expect the polished experience that SpaceX’s Starlink offers today. Like the rest of the Internet’s satellite constellation, Project Kuiper will need years of additional launches before it reaches its full potential.
Amazon is finally ready to launch Project Kuiper
Chris Weber, Amazon’s Vice President in charge of business strategy and products for Project Kuiper, confirmed that the company now has enough satellites in orbit to continuously provide its first service areas. The announcement comes after Amazon’s latest launch boosted its constellation of 396 active satellites. While that’s enough to start providing Internet access in select areas, it’s still only a fraction of Amazon’s long-term goal of sending 3,232 satellites into low-Earth orbit.
Project Kuiper is Amazon’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink, which aims to provide high-speed broadband connections to homes, businesses, and remote communities where conventional internet infrastructure is limited or unavailable. Amazon has repeatedly said that commercial availability is expected to begin in mid-2026, and this latest shipment suggests that the company is still working despite the previous launch delays.
Starlink shows why patience will be necessary
Although Amazon has reached an important milestone, its network is still small compared to Starlink. When SpaceX launches its “Better Than Nothing Beta” in 2020, the company already has nearly 900 satellites in orbit. Even then, the service was limited to parts of the United States and Canada, with users often reporting connection drops, sensitivity to obstacles such as trees and buildings, download speeds ranging between 50Mbps and 150Mbps, and delays between 20ms and 40ms.
Those limitations gradually disappeared as SpaceX continued to launch satellites. Today, Starlink operates more than 10,000 satellites, serving customers in more than 160 countries across the residential, maritime, aviation and business markets. Depending on the subscription plan and location, users can expect average download speeds of around 200Mbps, upload speeds of between 10Mbps and 40Mbps, and latency of around 25ms.
Amazon hopes to follow a similar path, but faces a long road ahead. The company still needs to launch thousands of satellites before Project Kuiper can provide the same capacity, coverage, and performance. Part of that challenge has been implementation availability. Amazon is relying on multiple launch providers while waiting for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to enter regular commercial service.
If Amazon can keep up its launch cadence, Project Kuiper could eventually emerge as Starlink’s first major competitor. For now, though, the latest milestone is best viewed as the beginning of a journey and not the finish line.
