Amazon satellite network gets a rebrand — and drops its affordability pitch

Amazon’s budding satellite internet program is no longer called Project Kuiper. It is now known simply as “Leo.” The name change comes as the company appears to be shifting its focus from “unserved or underserved” communities to securing larger commercial contracts.

The satellite network has been in development since 2019, and, as Amazon explains, the name Project Kuiper was only intended to be temporary. Leo is a nod to the network’s location in what’s known as low-Earth orbit, commonly referred to in the space industry as “LEO.”

As Amazon worked toward launching the first Kuiper satellites earlier this year, the company boasted that the project was an “initiative to increase global broadband access” with a noble-sounding “mission to bring fast, affordable broadband” to communities that aren’t well-served by traditional internet providers.

However, as TechCrunch previously noted, the company has changed the language it uses to describe the service in recent months, following deals with Airbus and JetBlue, which have put the network more squarely in competition with SpaceX’s Starlink service.

Amazon didn’t respond to requests for comment.

An archived version of the main FAQ page for Kuiper, published in late 2024, places the aforementioned “mission” to serve those communities right at the top of the post. Affordability is mentioned three times throughout, with Amazon referring to it as a “key principle of Project Kuiper.”

“Amazon has a longstanding commitment to low prices, and lots of experience building popular, low-cost devices like Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick,” reads the answer to a question on the archived post about how much Kuiper service will cost. “We’re applying a similar approach with Project Kuiper.”

That question-and-answer about cost is now gone from the Leo FAQ, and there is no mention of “affordability” anywhere on the page.

The language at the top of the new FAQ is also different. It states that Leo is “Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite network, designed to provide fast, reliable internet to customers and communities beyond the reach of existing networks.”

While the Leo FAQ mentions that poor connectivity can “create an economic disadvantage for people, businesses, and other organizations operating in unserved and underserved parts of the world,” the company is less specific than it used to be about prioritizing those communities in the customer pipeline.

Amazon Leo’s new website is even more explicit about how it prioritizes home and commercial internet service. It promotes the ability to make “seamless video calls, stream 4K videos,” and “handle your whole family’s internet needs,” as well as the fact that Leo is “[f]lexible, scalable, enterprise-ready.”

The idea of using Leo “even in rural and remote locations” is brought up as almost an afterthought on the main website, and there is no mention of cost or affordability.

Despite all this, on Thursday, Amazon posted a flashy video about the name change on X. Among other things, it shows a kid using her computer to do homework, professional drift racing, ambulance workers on a remote road, a farmer using a tablet, and a couple dancing in a laundromat. Along with the video, it wrote: “New name, same mission.”