Amazon has filed plans with US regulators for a constellation of more than 5,100 satellites designed to connect directly to ordinary mobile phones, a move that would let people text, call and reach emergency services even where there is no terrestrial signal at all.
The application, submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on 24 July, seeks authorisation for the Amazon Leo Direct-to-Device system. According to the filing, the network would provide voice, messaging, data and emergency services to areas beyond the reach of cell towers.
How the network would work
Direct-to-device, or D2D, technology allows a standard smartphone to link straight to a satellite passing overhead rather than routing a signal through a ground-based cell tower. Amazon's filing describes a system using Globalstar's globally licensed L-band and S-band mobile satellite spectrum, which would enable voice calls, text messages and emergency connectivity to unmodified 4G and 5G smartphones in more than 120 countries without requiring new hardware.
That spectrum access flows from Amazon's pending acquisition of Globalstar, a satellite communications company. Globalstar already supports Apple's emergency satellite messaging feature on iPhones, and Amazon has said the deal includes a long-term agreement with Apple to keep supporting services such as emergency texting, messaging and roadside assistance through the Leo network.
Rather than selling the service directly to consumers, Amazon intends to partner with mobile network operators around the world to weave supplemental satellite coverage into their existing terrestrial networks, with priority given to rural, remote, disaster-affected and emergency-response users, the filing indicates.
A slower start than SpaceX, but a long game
Amazon has said satellite deployment for the D2D constellation would begin no earlier than 2028, a timeline that leaves it well behind SpaceX. Musk's company already operates a direct-to-cell service with T-Mobile in the United States, letting phones send texts via satellite when out of normal coverage, and has been expanding similar tie-ups with carriers elsewhere.
“"D2D networks provide connectivity straight to smartphones or other devices via satellites in place of traditional cell towers."”
For European readers, the more immediate story may be Amazon Leo's broadband ambitions rather than the phone network itself. The service, previously known as Project Kuiper before Amazon rebranded it to Amazon Leo late last year, has already secured a UK licence from Ofcom and regulatory approval in Ireland for a satellite gateway at the National Space Centre in Elfordstown, County Cork. An economic impact study found Project Kuiper's investments in the EU will contribute €2.8bn to GDP over the next decade and support an average of 3,270 jobs annually across the region.
Amazon has also lined up a commercial relationship with Vodafone, which agreed in 2023 to use the Kuiper constellation to extend 4G and 5G coverage in Europe and Africa, an arrangement that could eventually feed into direct-to-phone services on the continent too.
Brussels wary of ceding ground
The European Commission is separately weighing how much of the region's mobile satellite spectrum to hand to foreign operators. Proposals under discussion would give Starlink and Amazon Leo limited access to spectrum in the 2 GHz band, while ringfencing roughly two-thirds of it for European companies, a deliberate effort to support the bloc's own IRIS² satellite programme.
IRIS² is the EU's answer to Starlink and Kuiper: a state-backed constellation intended to give European governments and businesses secure communications without depending on American or other foreign networks. The spectrum debate underscores a broader tension in Europe's approach to satellite connectivity, welcoming private investment such as Amazon's Irish gateway while trying to keep strategic infrastructure under European control.
Whether or not Amazon's direct-to-phone satellites ever reach European skies, the FCC filing marks a significant escalation in the wider contest between Amazon and SpaceX to control how people connect when cell towers cannot reach them, a competition that will increasingly shape mobile coverage far beyond the United States.
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