Amazon Gains Fcc Approval for Kuiper Internet Satellite Constellation and Commits $10 Billion to the Project

The Kuiper Project is the initiative with which Amazon intends to offer internet access in remote locations . It seemed that the idea would fall by the wayside, but this week the company revealed a major breakthrough, the United States government endorsed Amazon to put more than 3,000 satellites into orbit . The project will have an investment of $ 10 billion.

It is these satellites that will allow the Kuiper Project to provide internet access in regions with little or no telecommunications infrastructure. This service can be offered, for example, to mobile phone operators that, due to technical or economic infeasibility, cannot expand their coverage in certain places.

For this, a license is required. The FCC, a United States entity, unanimously approved the start of operations for the Kuiper Project . This means that Amazon is now allowed to compete with similar initiatives such as SpaceX’s Starlink and OneWeb.

When will Amazon’s satellite internet start working?

When the project was unveiled in April 2019, Amazon informed the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) of its plan to place 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit ; The altitude is expected to vary between 590 and 630 km. However, in the initial phase, the number will be much lower, although still significant.

Amazon

The service will begin operating when 578 satellites are in orbit . The FCC authorization document indicates that the implementation of the Kuiper Project will be divided into five phases. The FCC determines that 50% of the initiative’s satellites must be operational before July 30, 2026.

The remaining half is expected to go live by July 30, 2029. Amazon may lose your service license if you do not meet these conditions . There is no information yet on which satellites Amazon will use, nor on the download and upload speeds that will be offered.

However, it is known that the company expects the latency (ping) to not exceed 25 ms. The initiative will be led by Dave Limp, vice president of Amazon, who until recently was in charge of the Kindle platform  .

“There are still many places with poor or non-existent broadband services. Kuiper is going to change that. Our $ 10 billion investment will create jobs and infrastructure in the United States to help fill that gap. ” said Limp