Amazon Leo signs Uztelecom for Uzbek satellite internet
UZ-SAT becomes an authorised Amazon Leo distributor as the constellation approaches its first commercial service later this year.
Amazon Leo has signed UZ-SAT, a subsidiary of Uzbekistan's incumbent operator Uztelecom, as an authorised distributor, in an agreement announced on the first day of ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026 and during the 5th Tashkent International Investment Forum. UZ-SAT will sell and deploy Amazon Leo connectivity to customers in the parts of the country that cable cannot economically reach.
What the agreement covers
UZ-SAT will use Amazon Leo to build and deliver new connectivity services, according to Amazon, bringing satellite internet to communities and businesses where traditional networks are difficult to deploy. The case for it sits in Uztelecom's own numbers: the operator already provides connectivity to 96 per cent of communities, runs more than 234,000 miles (378,000 kilometres) of fibre-optic infrastructure and serves more than 13 million users. Uzbekistan's geography, from mountain regions to remote desert communities, is what makes the remaining percentage expensive to finish with cable. Amazon is positioning its constellation as a complement to that fibre rather than a replacement for it, which is also the honest way to describe the economics.
Where the constellation actually is
Amazon Leo is built around an initial constellation of more than 3,000 satellites, linked to a global network of ground gateway antennas and dedicated fibre, with three terminal families called Nano, Pro and Ultra. The company says it has launched nearly 400 satellites to date and is testing the service with its own employees and selected enterprise customers in a private preview. Initial service is expected to begin in certain locations later this year, with coverage expanding as more satellites are launched, and Amazon plans to double its annual launch rate to support that. Until those launches happen, every distribution agreement is a reservation rather than a service.
Both sides on the record
Trevor Vieweg, Amazon Leo's global head of business, said the company was excited to bring Amazon Leo to Uzbekistan and to deliver high-performance connectivity to the communities and businesses that need it most, describing collaborations like this one as essential to combining satellite technology with local expertise. Bakhrom Azimov, general director of UZ-SAT, said the deal would let the operator expand connectivity options where traditional terrestrial infrastructure is limited, and that next-generation satellite connectivity would complement Uztelecom's existing network.
Our opinion
The revealing part of this agreement is who the customer is. Amazon is not selling terminals to Uzbek households; it is selling to the operator that already has the regulator's ear, the billing relationships and 96 per cent of the country wired. That is a wholesale strategy wearing a connectivity mission, and for a constellation still running a private preview it is the only sensible one: a distributor with 13 million existing users can absorb a partial, early service without Amazon having to staff consumer support in a market it has never sold into. It also settles what the competition will be fought over. Satellite internet in Central Asia will be judged on the last four per cent of communities, the ones fibre could not justify, and those are exactly the customers an incumbent already knows how to find. The number worth watching is not the deal count but the rollout date Amazon keeps describing as later this year.