Amazon has gotten approval from the FCC to create a satellite internet network that would be a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink service.
Marketwatch reported on documents released Thursday, showing Amazon’s request to build a network of over 3,200 satellites, called Project Kuiper. The goal of the project, Amazon has said, is to research areas that have previously been underserved, including rural areas in the US and internationally and developing countries.
“There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or where it doesn’t exist at all. Kuiper will change that,” Amazon Senior Vice President Dave Limp said in the statement. “Our $10 billion investment will create jobs and infrastructure around the United States that will help us close this gap.”
Project Kuiper has been in the works for some time. In December 2019, we reported that Amazon had first asked the FCC for permission to start testing for the service in the summer of 2019.
“The goal here is broadband everywhere, but the very nature of [having] thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit is very different from geostationary satellites. … You have equal broadband all over the surface of Earth. Not exactly equal, it tends to be a lot more concentrated toward the poles, unfortunately.,” Jeff Bezos said in June 2019.
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