The company said on Monday that it had submitted a request to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to deploy this constellation by 2028.
She added that the system will provide voice calls, messages, data and emergency services.
“Amazon looks forward to realizing the promise of D2D, including serving the millions of people who live, travel or work in places not reached by today’s existing networks,” Amazon said in its filing.
This order is considered Amazon’s first step into the field of satellite telephony, which has so far been dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink service.
Elon Musk’s group has signed partnerships with established telecommunications companies such as T-Mobile in the US and Virgin Media O2 in the UK to offer phone services to customers in areas not reached by their traditional networks.
Starlink operates in more than 150 countries and offers high-speed Internet connections via a network of satellites.
Last month, the Financial Times reported that Starlink may take an extra step by launching a direct-to-consumer mobile phone service in the US, in a move that could upend the US mobile phone market by several billion dollars.
Ben Harwood, an analyst at New Street Research, said that deploying the satellite constellation could cost “about $13 billion to $20 billion”, assuming the design is “very similar to the competitor’s design” and that the launches are primarily via “Blue Origin”, the rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Amazon’s move is expected to increase competition in the market for direct device communication services, with other competitors such as AST Space Mobile, which has partnered with Vodafone.
Amazon said it will use the radio frequency bands it obtained through its recent acquisition of rival company Globalstar, in a deal worth $11.6 billion.
The Seattle-based company has more than 390 satellites in orbit for broadband Internet service, but its efforts to deploy more satellites have faced delays, while the constellation remains much smaller than SpaceX’s Starlink network, which includes more than 10,000 active satellites.
Amazon received an extension from the Federal Communications Commission last June for the deadline to launch about 1,600 satellites by the end of this month.
