Amazon Leo to Bring Satellite Broadband to Uzbekistan via Uztelecom
Amazon will bring its Leo satellite internet service to Uzbekistan through a distribution deal with UZ-SAT, an affiliate of national ISP Uztelecom. The announcement was published on September 22, 2026. About Amazon
The partner on the ground is Uztelecom, working through its UZ-SAT venture. The deal covers distribution of high-speed satellite internet across the country, starting with remote and hard-to-reach areas. Amazon said Leo is intended to complement Uztelecom's existing networks and extend connectivity where it is needed most. Engadget
Uztelecom already reaches 96 percent of communities in Uzbekistan. The remaining gap is geographic rather than a lack of capacity in cities. Satellite links, either as backhaul connecting local networks to the core internet or as direct service to a dish, can cover mountain, desert and low-density areas without waiting for new fiber or microwave towers.
The agreement was signed at the Tashkent International Investment Forum to expand internet access, according to June reporting that came before the September announcement. Trend.AZ Uzbekistan's Ministry of Digital Technologies has listed the project under its national connectivity program.
Commercial service has not started. At the time of the September announcement, Leo had not publicly launched. Amazon was testing the system with employees and select enterprise customers. The company had said it planned to start Leo internet service in 2026, after an Atlas V launch of Leo satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:30 a.m. Bloomberg
The constellation is still early in deployment. Amazon had about 400 satellites in orbit at the time of the Uzbekistan announcement, with plans for more than 3,000 in the near future. The full design calls for 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, or LEO, a few hundred to a couple thousand kilometers up where signal delay is lower than with traditional geostationary satellites. The spacecraft use high-speed optical links, essentially lasers, to send traffic between satellites in space before sending it down to a ground gateway or a customer terminal.
SpaceX had more than 11,000 satellites in orbit at the same point. That numerical gap affects capacity, how often a satellite passes over a given area, and how quickly either company can provide continuous coverage in a market. Amazon is increasing its launch rate and signing parallel commercial deals while it adds satellites. It has partnered with Delta to bring Leo connectivity to flights, and it bought Globalstar, the company that provides Apple's emergency satellite connectivity. Blue Origin hired at least 47 veterans of the Amazon Leo project in the last year. Bloomberg
The broader context here is how low-orbit systems usually enter a country. They rarely replace the national carrier. They connect to it. An ISP with near-universal coverage still has last-mile routes that are too costly to build with fiber. A satellite overlay gives that ISP managed backhaul, backup connections for businesses, and rural coverage under one purchasing relationship, with on-site work limited to a terminal, power and a clear view of the sky.
In my view, Uzbekistan is a practical test of that approach. The technical questions are straightforward. Terminal availability and pricing. Gateway placement and spectrum coordination. How traffic passes between the laser links in space and Uztelecom fiber on the ground. How service holds up in bad weather and during peak use. For enterprise architects, the pilot structure is also instructive: testing with employees and select enterprise customers first suggests Amazon is checking network management, billing integration and support workflows on a smaller group before a public launch. If that integration works, rural clinics, schools, field operations and transport corridors would get usable broadband sooner than terrestrial expansion would allow. The constellation still needs to grow to deliver that at scale, but the commercial path is now clearer: national ISP in front, satellite capacity behind it.
