🛰️ Amazon wants to run your phone signal from orbit

Amazon bought Globalstar's network and its Apple services deal earlier this year. Now it has filed with the FCC to launch 5,105 more LEO satellites for direct-to-device voice, messaging, and emergency calls — no cell towers. Deployment from 2028, per Advanced Television.

🔸 Nearly double the size of its Kuiper broadband fleet, which has only launched "over 375" of ~3,200 planned satellites as of July
🔸 Also seeking Iridium's spectrum outside the US — a friction point with Rocket Lab, currently acquiring Iridium
🔸 Signals processed on-orbit, not just relayed

Kuiper for broadband, this for cellular, Apple as a named partner — mobile operators are quietly being repositioned from partners to infrastructure tenants.

The Verge