[HN Gopher] US agency approves Amazon Leo's $11.5B acquisition o...
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US agency approves Amazon Leo's $11.5B acquisition of Globalstar
Previously: _Amazon to acquire Globalstar and expand Amazon Leo
satellite network_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775183
- April 2026 (119 comments)
Author : noptd
Score : 230 points
Date : 2026-10-28 11:54 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| sebmellen wrote:
| 404 for me
| asdfsa32 wrote:
| I get 9600.
| interloxia wrote:
| The link didn't work for me.
|
| https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-agency-app...
|
| US agency approves Amazon Leo's $11.5 billion acquisition of
| Globalstar By David Shepardson October 27, 2026
| uxhacker wrote:
| This link works, on the original I am getting a 404
| esseph wrote:
| The original duplicates the path
|
| Here's the link:
|
| https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/amazon-
| signs-...
| kotaKat wrote:
| On the same note: https://investors.globalstar.com/news-
| releases/news-release-...
|
| The new direct-to-device network Amazon is getting their hands on
| is now approved and live on the air.
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| > _the C-3 System will comprise 48 low Earth orbit satellites
| operating at an altitude of 1414 kilometers along with 6 in-
| orbit spares, supported by approximately 90 six-meter ground
| station antennas installed around the world_
|
| Just fyi, LEO is up to 2000km / 1200mi. But this is still
| double Starlink altitude. And multiple orders of magnitude less
| satellites.
| paxy wrote:
| The deal was announced in April. It just got FCC approval.
| gkanai wrote:
| How does Globalstar's offering compare to Starlink?
| nonethewiser wrote:
| 9.6Kbps
|
| Not a joke
| cmiles8 wrote:
| Well that's more than most people can get out of Leo today so
| it's a start!
| jandrese wrote:
| Au Contraire, that bandwidth is definitely a joke.
| AdamN wrote:
| Does it also make modem sounds??
| gizajob wrote:
| 9600bps ought to be enough for anyone.
| noumenon1111 wrote:
| Thanks, Bill.
| cj wrote:
| That's their legacy product.
|
| 2nd gen is 256 Kbps
| kotaKat wrote:
| 2nd gen was 72kbps, never got to 256. Apple stepped in and
| got them to write the whole 2nd gen Duplex network off
| before it got that far.
| fred_is_fred wrote:
| That's enough bandwidth to play Trade Wars and SRE so it's
| good enough for me.
| lossyalgo wrote:
| Why no Legend of the Red Dragon? :(
| treebeard901 wrote:
| Waiting on a "vibe coded" but modern LORD or TW2002...
|
| Could make the games a lot more dynamic with the use of
| LLMs and maybe get people interested in writing scripts
| for text games again.
| quietsegfault wrote:
| What about LORD?
| amitp wrote:
| :-)
|
| Tangent: SRE was very color-heavy and that led to some long
| ANSI sequences. From the recently decompiled source [1] you
| can see that I tried to pick shorter ANSI sequences when I
| could. In particular, going from color 0x0* to 0x1* we
| could save 1 byte, and going back to the default white on
| black we could save between 1 and 4 bytes. But if you're
| bandwidth limited there's also an option to turn off color
| entirely.
|
| [1] https://github.com/joeshaw/sre-
| reconstructed/blob/main/src/s...
| hylaride wrote:
| The spectrum and various other rights are probably worth more
| than the current kit.
| jmcqk6 wrote:
| They are serving different needs.
| amelius wrote:
| And starlink?
| toolcocoon wrote:
| i would think that globalstar is specialised in IoT and
| Starlink more as an extention of the cellular coverage.
| hbarka wrote:
| Globalstar flies highest, with orbits at ~1400 km. Starlink is
| at ~340-550 km. Per satellite, a higher altitude sees a larger
| portion and provides greater angular visibility of the Earth's
| surface at any one time. Globalstar is suited for low-power
| devices, emergency sat messaging, and IoT, not broadband speed.
| One reason they made a good fit with the iPhone. Also the
| valuable spectrum.
| Eden09 wrote:
| Previous discussion about the deal on HN (119 comments):
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775183
| hbarka wrote:
| Globalstar is a study in corporate survival. It lives on while
| its 90's cohort Iridium didn't make it.
|
| Consider the journey:
|
| 2002: Bankruptcy.
|
| 2007: Satellite amplifier failures threatened its voice service.
|
| 2010-2013: A replacement constellation helped restore capacity.
|
| 2022: Apple's iPhone Emergency SOS gave Globalstar a major new
| purpose.
|
| 2024: Apple committed approximately $1.5 billion in investment
| and infrastructure funding.
|
| Now: This acquisition by Amazon would bring Globalstar's
| satellite assets and spectrum into Amazon's competition with
| Starlink, while preserving satellite services for Apple devices.
|
| Iridium has a museum: iridium museum.com
| diek wrote:
| Iridium exists today, refreshed their constellation with
| Iridium NEXT just a few years ago, and was just bought by
| Rocket Lab for $8 billion.
|
| (disclaimer: my Dad worked there for years)
| asa123 wrote:
| the person you are responding to seems to have massively
| massively downplayed iridium then....
| ganoushoreilly wrote:
| Surprisingly they're profitable, but still saddled with a
| lot of debt. I know to people over at Iridium that have
| stayed through the past 15 years or so. They have a niche
| they're serving that seems stable for now.
|
| I half expect Amazon to keep making acquisitions to try and
| accelerate their satellite efforts. I don't think it's a
| net negative thing, there's so much more we can do.
| monster_truck wrote:
| There are countless niches like this in telematics, one
| of the only industries I've encountered where a seemingly
| established company will be doing a "Series K" round,
| typically as a means to buy or build out the
| infrastructure they need for whatever customer.
| jandrese wrote:
| I am surprised that Starlink didn't eat their lunch. I
| think the only thing keeping them alive is inertia and
| the fact that Starlink still has regional lockouts and
| doesn't work in the most remote parts of the world.
| labcomputer wrote:
| Iridium still has a monopoly on high latitudes, too,
| AFAIK. Their USP is being the only network that works
| literally anywhere on the surface of the earth.
| spikels wrote:
| Starlink works at high attitudes. It was a big deal when
| they got it at McMurdo 4 years ago. Same in Utqiagvik
| (formerly Barrow) Alaska.
| apendleton wrote:
| Garden variety Starlink requires a big, expensive, high-
| powered phased-array antenna, and there are lots of low-
| power/IoT-type applications served by Iridium for which
| Starlink is not suitable. Once the Starlink direct-to-
| cell technology matures, presumably that'll serve those
| usecases, but it still seems pretty nascent.
| yesod wrote:
| Under SOLAS, GMDSS equipment is mandatory on ships.
| Iridium (and Inmarsat) meet that requirement, starlink
| does not - hence Iridium is still very much around...
| paimapi wrote:
| And they have: https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/rocket-
| lab-buys-satelli...
| gumby wrote:
| Fun Iridium trivia: it was originally designed to need 77
| satellites, hence the name. By the time they deployed they'd
| figured out they'd only need 66, but for some reason didn't
| change their name to Dysprosium.
| Slartie wrote:
| This kind of trivia can be discovered in the very
| interesting and entertaining book "Eccentric Orbits: The
| Iridium Story" by John Bloom. Highly recommended read (if
| you're generally into tech/business/startup chronicles)!
|
| And while you're at it, read "Chip Wars" by Christopher R.
| Miller as well. Extremely good read to understand
| tomorrows' most relevant geopolitical conflict.
| martinky24 wrote:
| What? Doesn't iridium exist?
| huhtenberg wrote:
| It does. That is until its acquisition by Rocket Lab
| completes in 2027.
| cubefox wrote:
| https://www.iridiummuseum.com/
| pfdietz wrote:
| I remember the Motorola Museum on the Schaumburg campus has
| an Iridium satellite hanging from the ceiling.
|
| The entire museum was demolished a few years ago to make way
| for a Top Golf.
| cubefox wrote:
| > 2002: Bankruptcy.
|
| Why wasn't this the end?
| piker wrote:
| Two types of bankruptcy in the U.S.: liquidation and
| reorganization. The latter lets a company reshuffle assets
| and debt and schedule new payment plans to continue to exist
| as a going concern. It often wipes out shareholders.
| handwoven wrote:
| Bankruptcy doesn't mean that assets will be destroyed.
| Valuable assets (including satellites, brand etc.) will be
| sold off to new owners, and the proceeds go to the lenders.
| laughing_man wrote:
| That's what happened in Iridium's case. They created a new
| company, which bought all the assets for $25 million and
| the original entity defaulted on $1.5 billion in debt. The
| new company now does business with the original name.
|
| It's the same thing that happened with the GM's 2009
| bankruptcy. Technically the original company was
| liquidated, but you'd never know as a customer.
|
| A family member made a big short bet on Iridium after he
| decided they couldn't survive and made a lot of money.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| in the US corporate bankruptcy allows the company to
| restructure its debts.
|
| case in point: the three largest airlines in the US have
| declared bankruptcy at some point: United, Delta, American
| jareklupinski wrote:
| walmart has a museum too
|
| https://www.visitbentonville.com/blog/stories/post/the-new-w...
| PyWoody wrote:
| This is giving me real Severance _Perpetuity Wing_ vibes.
| pnt12 wrote:
| You're not lying.
|
| "The wait is finally over--the Walmart Museum is back and
| better than ever!"
|
| "This video series is intended to be updated as time goes
| on, so go ahead and come back on your next visit to
| experience more messages!"
| marcosdumay wrote:
| "The floor also features the Hologram Theater, where Sam
| Walton himself shares his story"
|
| I'm wondering if the show writers used it as a reference.
| kotaKat wrote:
| Mr. Sam would be screaming at what future Mr. Holo-Sam is
| spewing out of his mouth if we pulled him out of the
| grave.
|
| It feels a little off-putting to have the hologram
| alongside his (actual) F150 pickup (and the messaging
| _behind_ his pickup). The hologram doesn 't fit with
| "what [I'm] supposed to haul my dogs around in - a Rolls
| Royce?"
| SR2Z wrote:
| That whole town (Bentonville) is essentially run by
| Walmart.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| > 2022: Apple's iPhone Emergency SOS gave Globalstar a major
| new purpose.
|
| I wondered who it was that Apple was using for that but never
| looked into it. Was it for any particular reason on Apple's
| part other than it probably saved them a bundle compared to
| going with literally anyone else? Or is there something else
| I'm missing? Just curious. I wish I could be a fly on the wall
| for some of these corporate events nobody thinks too much
| about.
| kotaKat wrote:
| Globalstar's technology over everyone else. They've just been
| crude bent pipes up in the sky. They _still are_. C-3 is just
| a bunch of new radio repeaters.
|
| Globalstar's original network was just CDMA over the bent
| pipe satellite link, their second-gen Duplex network (sold as
| Sat-Fi 2) was an attempt to go WCDMA, then Apple dangled a
| _lot_ of cash at them to build out and drop the entire Sat-Fi
| 2 product, the entire WCDMA core, and go roll Apple 's new
| toys out for them. I'm assuming C3 is going to be heavily
| LTE-based if it isn't already at this point.
|
| (I had a Sat-Fi 2 device and it was an interesting and short-
| lived experience. I was also there for the weird interim 201x
| satellite failure era - I remember having to pull up the
| Optimal Satellite Availability Tool to go see exactly how
| many long ~2-10 minute windows I could make phone calls in
| with a GSP-1600.)
|
| ((Double-fun-fact: The GSP-1600 is still actively used on
| Globalstar today, and it's one of the only tri-mode phones
| that existed of the era. It was satellite via GSTAR, then had
| CDMA for local calling and AMPS for the sticks. I had my
| GSP-1600 activated on a Verizon MVNO for local calls, which
| was a blast to use.))
| egl2020 wrote:
| I'm not a radio guy, but I've read that the in-phone modems
| and antennas for Globalstar were much closer to existing
| designs. The spectrum is apparently right next to WiFi and
| Bluetooth bands.
| mikestew wrote:
| _It lives on while its 90's cohort Iridium didn't make it._
|
| Garmin inReach users will be disappointed to hear that:
| _"inReach devices use the Iridium satellite constellation,
| which forms a mesh with 100% globe coverage."_
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmin_inReach
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| The Iridium constellation(s) are very much in active use. They
| transitioned their business model from pure communications to
| RF remote sensing. They are among the leaders in some markets
| for RF remote sensing platforms. AFAIK the businesses in these
| markets do not use the Iridium name, which makes sense given it
| is a historical telecom brand.
| bragr wrote:
| The NEXT satellites also do space based ADS-B and AIS
| tracking. They packed an impressive variety of side
| businesses into the current satellites.
| redanddead wrote:
| Very high value acquisition
|
| How did they not become spacex/starlink
| nicce wrote:
| > How did they not become spacex/starlink
|
| You need to go big first with the rockets.
|
| If you have the rockets, everything else is easy later on.
| Collect millions from others to launch the satellites in the
| meantime.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| And if you don't have rockets, you use SpaceX, like
| GlobalStar does.
| joezydeco wrote:
| Leo/Kuiper was launching satellites on SpaceX as well.
| malfist wrote:
| Only after a shareholder lawsuit
| rtkwe wrote:
| Before Falcon came in and drove down launch costs
| significantly putting lots of satellites in low orbit you
| need to replace constantly was a bad way to design a
| satellite network. It still has some issues like the
| continuous ongoing cost where the traditional providers'
| satellites would last for many years before needing to be
| replaced.
| peplee wrote:
| I can highly recommend the book "Eccentric Orbits" by John
| Bloom if you want to learn about the Iridium constellation
| story. Easily one of the best books I've read in the last few
| years. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26893707-eccentric-
| orbit...
| MarsZebra wrote:
| Great book, one thing it missed is how these satellite
| constellations are also funded by the government for their
| dual use potential in Strategic Defense Initiative
| development (now officially called Golden Dome)
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_s.
| ..
| apercu wrote:
| I consulted for iridium for 8 years from like 2009-2018. They
| very much still exist?
| itsamario wrote:
| The biggest benefit Amazon has vs starlink is their hosting is
| considered the standard and because of that they already have a
| connection to every other network.
|
| So any latency Sat incurs, Amazon will likely have the closest
| path to the destination and be the most preferred wisp
| handedness wrote:
| Iridium didn't make it? I use it all the time.
| walrus01 wrote:
| This is an incredibly inaccurate and uninformed description.
| Globalstar was a failure in the market because its satellite
| network is bent pipe and doesn't provide open ocean or polar or
| true global coverage. The second corporate incarnation of
| Iridium (that bought it out of the bankruptcy process) was
| wildly successful with maritime, aviation and DoD customers.
| Iridium had VASTLY more market share in portable LEO satellite
| terminal users and revenue at the time of this acquisition.
| Iridium grew its market to include embedded data modems like
| the Iridium SBD modems you find in Garmin Inreach and tons of
| other equipment.
|
| The *ONLY VALUE* of Globalstar for an acquisition is its legacy
| spectrum allocation in a very valuable (sub 1.7 GHz, above 1.2
| GHz) range. The technology was utter crap compared to Iridium
| and nobody who worked in two way satellite has taken it
| seriously since maybe 2002.
| aboardRat4 wrote:
| Just use Thuraya or Inmarsat.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| The news is that the FCC approved the acquisition. It was already
| announced back in April that Amazon would be purchasing
| Globalstar. I don't think anyone expected it to be held up by
| regulators.
|
| Edit: proper link to it https://www.reuters.com/business/media-
| telecom/us-agency-app...
| 0xy wrote:
| Every satellite internet provider other than Starlink is complete
| garbage. Slow, unreliable, useless.
| sourcecodeplz wrote:
| if you can't beat 'em, join 'em
| prirun wrote:
| From https://www.globalstar.com/en-us/resource-
| center/articles/ba...
|
| Band n53 adds premium midrange spectrum to the premium
| performance of XCOM RAN. As midband spectrum, it provides a
| balance of speed and coverage for 5G with download speeds up to
| 250 Mbps and upload speeds up to 100 Mbps, wider coverage than
| millimeter-wave frequencies and greater efficiency than lower
| bands for better throughput. If you run the wireless networks
| that run the world, the combination of band n53 and XCOM RAN is a
| marriage made in heaven. Learn more in the Terrestrial Wireless
| section at www.globalstar.com.
| philistine wrote:
| You're not supposed to publicly acknowledge the existence of
| XCOM ;)
| SeanAnderson wrote:
| Kind of an interesting acquisition, no?
|
| Why is Amazon interested in Globalstar? The first thing that
| comes to my mind is like... Amazon's lowkey business model is
| "pick unsexy, logistics-heavy areas and just Do The Work better
| than others until a niche is carved out."
|
| And from that POV I think the acquisition makes sense, but I'm
| not sure how this benefits the existing constellation of Amazon
| IP. Is it more like an attempt to have a relevant AWS-like play
| but for satcom because they see demand in that area growing a
| ton? Okay sure but is Globalstar really getting you that unlock?
| mobelkh wrote:
| they're already knee deep with LEO/kuiper(?)
| fedpost wrote:
| Much like their customers, I suspect Amazon themselves don't
| actually ever do anything other than buy random shit they won't
| ever use...at least on the space side. I know a bunch of people
| who work out at the cape and it sounds horrid.
| MarkWayneNewton wrote:
| global drone network. governments will pay far and wide for
| access.
| tristanj wrote:
| It's largely because Amazon started Leo / Project Kuiper in the
| late 2010s when Jeff Bezos was still CEO of Amazon. Musk and
| Bezos both run rival spaceflight companies, and during this
| era, Musk and Bezos had multiple public spats stemming from:
|
| 1) Blue Origin & SpaceX competing for the same NASA / DoD
| resources.
|
| 2) Blue Origin using government processes to block / stall
| contracts that would go to SpaceX.
|
| When Musk fired a number of Seattle-based Starlink execs in
| mid-2018, Bezos took them in to build a competing product.
| After Starship launched its inaugural flight and it was clear
| Blue was 10-15 years behind SpaceX, the rivalry died down. By
| then, Bezos had already stepped down as CEO of Amazon. Now
| Amazon Leo / Project Kuiper exists as an inherited project.
| pavon wrote:
| I would guess cellphone spectrum for direct to device service.
| jedbrooke wrote:
| I bet this is about about acquiring spectrum rights or something
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Previously in April:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775183
| arlattimore wrote:
| Starlink have over 11,000 satellites in orbit.
|
| Globalstar have 24 satellites in orbit (at least according to
| Google).
|
| How does this acquisition by Amazon meaningfully expand Leo to
| compete against Starlink?
| RealityVoid wrote:
| Pre-existing infra, designs and know-how?
| sempron64 wrote:
| Spectrum and IP, probably.
| wil421 wrote:
| Maybe spectrum.
| jmcqk6 wrote:
| Are those the iridium satellites? They are doing something
| completely different from starlink. For one thing, they are in
| much higher orbit, increasing both latency and coverage. They
| also have much less available bandwidth.
|
| I'm not sure they are competitors. They could be, but these
| networks are serving different purposes.
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