Today Amazon has announced that it is acquiring Globalstar, the company that enables Apple’s satellite connectivity features. Basically, Globalstar provides the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to which iPhones and Apple Watches connect when they’re out of cellular or Wi-Fi coverage, and Apple uses most of Globalstar’s network capacity.
Amazon wants to use Globalstar’s satellites to add direct-to-device services to future generations of its LEO network. The official press release states that Globalstar’s satellites will expand the Amazon LEO (Amazon LEO is Amazon’s LEO satellite company, hence the different spellings) constellation and will help Amazon “help mobile network operators extend voice, text and data services to customers beyond the reach of terrestrial networks”. Of course, Amazon will provide this “support” to carriers in exchange for a fee.
Amazon has also signed an agreement with Apple, under which Amazon Leo will continue the service provided by Globalstar, so there will be no connectivity issues for iPhone and Apple Watch owners. If anything, satellite connectivity on those devices could be even better since they’ll likely now have access to the combined Globalstar and Amazon LEO constellation.
