Starlink
Operational — market leaderSpaceX's broadband constellation and the largest satellite fleet ever flown. Owns its own launch vehicle — the advantage everything else follows from.
View profile →Companies
Profiles of the operators building and running Low Earth Orbit constellations — what they fly, how the business model works, what it costs, and what has to go right for it to pay back.
LEO is not one market. A broadband constellation selling consumer subscriptions, a wholesale operator selling capacity to telcos, a direct-to-handset network selling coverage to mobile carriers and a narrowband IoT operator selling reliability to shipping fleets are four different businesses that happen to share an altitude band. The profiles below are grouped by what each company actually sells.
OneWeb
Operational — wholesaleThe wholesale LEO network. Bankrupt in 2020, rescued by the UK government, merged into Eutelsat — and now the vehicle for European space sovereignty.
View profile →Kuiper
Deploying — behind scheduleAmazon's 3,236-satellite answer to Starlink. Deep pockets and AWS distribution, but it does not own a rocket — and that is the whole problem.
View profile →AST SpaceMobile
Early deployment — pre-revenueA cell tower in orbit. Huge phased arrays that connect directly to an ordinary, unmodified smartphone — no dish, no app, no special hardware.
View profile →Iridium
Operational — profitableThe survivor. 66 cross-linked L-band satellites, pole-to-pole coverage, IoT and defence revenue — and the only operator here with its capex behind it.
View profile →