27 SEP 2026 — Vietnam has given Amazon Kuiper a licence to run a satellite network across the country, but not to sell internet access over it. The licence, handed over in New York on 23 September, lets the company test user terminals and check the quality of products made in Vietnam.
Starlink, its main rival, already holds the consumer permit; Amazon's request for one, filed a year ago, does not appear in this week's announcements.
What the licence allows
Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan presented the licence in the presence of General Secretary and President To Lam, who was in New York. The ministry's science journal gives the scope: a private telecommunications network over satellite links "to test and verify the operation of customer terminal equipment", thereby evaluating the quality of products manufactured in Vietnam.
The network may run nationwide and connect Amazon's satellites to ground infrastructure in Vietnam. Viet Nam News adds that it must comply with the rules on telecommunications, radio frequencies, technical standards, service quality and cybersecurity. Neither report gives the licence's duration.
A private network like this is for the licence holder's own operations, not for taking subscribers.
What Amazon asked for last year
In August 2025 the ministry said Amazon had pledged US$570 million in Vietnam by 2030, Light Reading reported at the time. The plan covered about six ground stations and a terminal production plant in the northern province of Bac Ninh, built through local partners.
Amazon had also applied for a controlled pilot of a satellite internet service, and the ministry said it aimed to send that application to the Prime Minister by September 2025. A year later, the licence that has arrived covers the factory half of that plan.
That fits a company that wants Vietnam as a manufacturing base. Terminals built in Bac Ninh need testing against real satellites before they ship, and this licence allows exactly that.
Where Starlink stands
Starlink's route has been different. Vietnam's telecommunications authority approved it for a five-year controlled pilot, VietnamPlus reported on 1 April 2026, capped at 600,000 subscribers and running to 2031. The approval covers four gateway stations in Phu Tho, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.
So one company may sign up Vietnamese customers under a cap, while the other may test hardware on Vietnamese soil. The permits are not the same kind of thing, even though both involve satellites over the same country.
The name on the licence
The licence holder is Amazon Kuiper Vietnam, a company set up in 2024. The satellite project it belongs to was renamed Amazon Leo in late 2025, but the Vietnamese entity kept the old name.
Both the ministry journal and Viet Nam News say Amazon Leo operates more than 3,000 low-orbit satellites. We have not been able to confirm that figure against an Amazon source, and it may describe the planned constellation rather than the number in orbit today.
What would change the picture
Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long tied the technology to Vietnam's goal of nationwide coverage by 2030. Satellite service reaches islands and mountain districts that fibre and mobile towers do not, which is the argument for letting more than one provider in.
The next document to watch is a service pilot for Amazon, with its own subscriber cap and gateway list. Until one appears, Amazon is a manufacturer and tester in Vietnam; Starlink holds the consumer pilot Amazon does not.
