Satellite and NTN tracker, Q2 2025

The entry of Amazon’s Kuiper represented the biggest competitive development in the satellite space in Q2 2025. It launched its first 27 satellites from a planned constellation of around 3,200. Amazon is well funded and has launch bookings for much of its future capacity.

2025 is a key year for the commercialisation of telco-satellite partnerships. However, this is not a 12-month game. Commercialisation is likely to play out over a two- to three-year period rather than being won or lost in the near term. Bigger questions concern service evolution (SMS to voice to data) and the viability of being able to offer these to a critical mass, considering the spectrum constraints and natural barriers due to the laws of physics.

This report also highlights the imperative to get the basics right in IoT. GSMA Intelligence estimates around 2.5–3.0 billion IoT devices are addressable by satellite, spread across a range of industries including logistics, precision agriculture and utilities. Recent survey data underlines the demand forces. Around 20% of businesses say critical operations are impacted each day by a lack of timely data.