Project Kuiper is a low earth orbit satellite system created by Blue Origin who are looking to competed against OneWeb and Starlink in the LEO constellation space race. They aim to have 3,236 satellites in orbit around 600 kilometers from Earth and provide broadband internet services
Currently, two other companies have satellites in low orbit. Starlink have over a thousand satellites and a beta testing program requ. Whilst OneWeb have over hundred satellites in orbit, aiming to have services running by Q4 2021 with 648 satellites in operation.
Project Kuiper
Type:
Low Orbit Satellite
Distance:
600km from Earth
Size:
3,236 Satellites
Cost:
$10 Billion
The project is still in its development phase with public testing being done on the antenna system, showcasing the ability to stream 4K content getting around 400mb from thirty-five thousand feet on a Geo satellite. Where low orbit satellites are only about 600km from Earth
Project Kuiper will make a good addition to current LEO development, Amazon is behind the project and they have a reputation for innovating and providing reliable global networking solutions via Amazon Web Services. Adding high-speed internet connections through satellite-connected routers would complete Amazons networking infrastructure
Amazon already sells tablets with their own OS and primed users. They also host major websites, so if a person watches Netflix on a Kindle fire they are consumer media inside the Amazon ecosystem. Low earth orbit satellites mean they are no longer dependent on other service providers
The project has been hit by regulatory challenges from SpaceX, in 2016 the spectrum of frequencies to protect against interference was auctioned off. As Amazon didn’t take part in the bidding SpaceX are wanting to stop them from using certain frequencies. Ultimately I expect the regulators to allow Project Kuiper to have access to required spectrums, as the greater the number of players in a market leads to greater competition and innovation
Project Kuiper will provide Amazon with another layer in the communications stack, once the LEO service is operational Amazon would be able to offer Fire devices connecting to Kuiper network routers whilst streaming movies hosted on AWS servers. A Prime-Plus which delivers media content as a complete logistics chain
