The company is teaming up with one of the country's ISPs to connect hard-to-reach regions.
Amazon is bringing Leo, its satellite internet service, to Uzbekistan. The company is teaming up with a regional ISP called Uztelecom to "power satellite connectivity in remote and hard-to-reach" parts of the country.
Uztelecom already has an fairly extensive reach, providing connectivity to 96 percent of communities. However, Uzbekistan has some diverse geography, with mountainous regions and remote deserts. It can be tough to deploy traditional cabled internet in some of those areas, so that's where Leo will step in to fill the gaps. Amazon says "Leo is designed to complement Uztelecom's existing infrastructure, extending connectivity where it is needed most."
Leo hasn't publicly launched just yet, so we don't know when the service in Uzbekistan will be live. The company is currently testing the service with employees and "select enterprise customers" before some type of roll-out later this year.
However, Leo has some major catching up to do if it wants to be a real competitor for SpaceX and Starlink. Amazon currently has around 400 satellites in orbit, with a plan for more than 3,000 in the near future. That's not bad, but SpaceX currently has more than 11,000 satellites in orbit.
Amazon has been making some moves behind the scenes, beyond this partnership in Uzbekistan. It recently teamed up with Delta to eventually bring satellite internet to flights. It also bought Globalstar, which is the company that provides Apple's emergency satellite connectivity.
