Why Amazon and Starlink NEED 10,000 satellites

Why are Amazon Leo and Starlink so much faster than Geostationary satellite internet? The answer comes down to orbital physics, latency, and the radical shift from geostationary satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband systems like Amazon LEO (Project Kuiper) and SpaceX Starlink. LEO satellites operate just 400–600 km above Earth, close to the altitude of the International Space Station, which massively reduces round-trip latency, boosts real-time performance, and enables high-throughput, low-delay internet. Because these satellites are so close, they move fast and require thousands of satellites to maintain global coverage, but the payoff is dramatically better network responsiveness, bandwidth aggregation, and beam handoff. GEO satellite internet sits in geostationary orbit at 35,786 km, nearly three Earths away. That distance forces enormous latency, limits bandwidth per satellite, but it means dishes can be simple and stationary, locked onto a single orbital position. LEO systems eliminate those constraints and bring fiber-like performance to remote and rural regions, at the cost of needing much more complex phased array technology in their satellite dishes to track thousands of fast-moving satellites. #satelliteinternet #space #techtalk #amazonleo #starlink