SMBs around the world will benefit from another company offering ultra-fast broadband. Amazon just announced hardware requirements for Project Kuiper, a low-cost global Internet service with the potential to deliver a lot of data with short latencies.
The online shopping giant and cloud computing leader plans to launch a global megacluster of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide affordable internet access worldwide.
LEOs orbit much closer to Earth than larger GSOs/GEO satellites, which is why they are so small. This means you need more LEOs for adequate coverage; however, the extra capacity can deliver a lot of data with fast latencies (often around 20-40 ms), provided there are enough ground stations.
Project Kuiper will use the 17.8-18.6 GHz band and 28.6-29.1 GHz frequencies for communication with ground stations.
Amazon is currently authorized to deploy and operate its own constellation of 3,236 LEO satellites under Project Kuiper. The company had stated they would launch half of their constellation by July 2026 (FCC requirements), followed by the remaining in mid-2029 – well behind their competitors SpaceX Starlink and UK-based OneWeb.
Project Cooper kit & speeds
Project Kuiper will ship three customer terminals (satellite antenna) to customers. The smallest (7 inches square) goes to residential customers around the world; a larger version (11 inches square and 1 inch thick) is suitable for both business and residential users, while the largest terminal (19 inches by 30 inches) is suitable for demanding corporate, telecom and government customers.
The ultra-compact model with the smallest dimensions offers broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps (Megabits per Second), while the standard model can deliver 400Mbps and the largest model up to 1Gbps (Gigabits per Second). Unfortunately, we don’t yet know what upload speeds it will reach or what the final latencies are; however, we expect them to be similar to Starlink’s.
Businesses are likely to be drawn to the larger terminals, so the question arises: how much does this kit cost? Amazon hasn’t revealed pricing or service package details yet, but they did mention that smaller terminals were cheaper than $500 (£411) to make.
Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s VP of Technology for Project Kuiper said:
“Our goal with Project Kuiper is not only to connect underserved and underserved communities, but also to surprise them with the quality, reliability and value of their service. From day one, every technology and business decision we’ve made has focused on what will deliver the best experience for different customers around the world, and our customer terminal offerings reflect those choices.”
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