Amazon Launches Project Kuiper Satellites in Bid to Challenge Starlink

What Happened?

Amazon launched twenty-seven satellites into orbit this week as part of Project Kuiper, which is intended to provide space-based internet services for users on the ground. A spokesman for Amazon said, ‘it had established communications with all of the satellites, and the sequence of turning them on was proceeding as planned.’

Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, added, ‘While this is the first step in a much longer journey to launch the rest of our low Earth orbit constellation, it represents an incredible amount of invention and hard work.’

Why it Matters

According to Amazon, Project Kuiper is an initiative to increase global broadband access through a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit. Its mission is to bring fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world. If successful, Kuiper would be a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink, which already offers satellite internet to millions of users worldwide. 

Through the start-up costs and technical obstacles for satellite are high, there are still advantages to space based internet services. Fiber optic lines must be physically installed in new service areas, which can be difficult and expensive for remote locations or in places where the terrain is challenging. By contrast, once operational satellite providers can beam signals to anywhere on earth without the need for new lines to be installed.

Space based internet services do require some ground infrastructure, including relay stations which can redirect or amplify the signals received from satellites. But for hard-to-reach places, satellites provide a clear advantage over other types of internet service. The satellite internet market is expected to grow from six billion dollars in 2024 to more than twenty-five billion by 2032.

One of the biggest growth factors is the increasing appetite for internet service in countries undergoing rapid population and industrial expansion, such as India and Nigeria. Satellite service providers can reach millions of potential customers, without building any new fiber optic lines in countries where construction costs are high, and bureaucratic obstacles can take years to overcome.

According to the New York Times, Project Kuiper will also be integrated with Amazon Web Services, which is popular with large corporations and governments. That bonus could make Kuiper appealing to businesses that involve satellite imagery or weather forecasting. Ones that not only need to move large amounts of data across the internet, but also to perform calculations on the data.

How it Affects You

Competition is good for the market and for consumers because it tends to spur innovation and lower costs. Over the long run, as more providers enter the space-based internet market, users will likely see an increase in selection and lower prices for subscriptions to satellite internet services.