by Amazon has unveiled the three receivers that will be used to receive the signal from Project Kuiper, a Space Internet initiative that promises to bring fast and affordable broadband connections to consumers, businesses, government agencies, or other organizations that live or operate in locations without unreliable connectivity or signals.
He Kuiper Project is the name of the satellite Internet solution being developed by Amazon. Although it lags behind SpaceX’s Starlink, which is spearheading these developments, the electronic commerce giant and the more than 10 billion dollars it will invest will be great competition for Elon Musk’s program in the future.
Compared to Starlink, which has its own launchers, Amazon and other companies that claim to provide new satellite Internet solutions do not. Amazon has so far contracted 92 heavy-lift launches from Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance, which should provide enough capacity to place the spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. 3,236 satellites projected by the company.
Kuiper Project Receivers
In addition to satellites in orbit, at the customer level, some special receivers Just introduced by Amazon. We won’t need the antennas of a NASA telescope to pick up the signal because the designs are quite small in size, especially those intended for homes.
The first will be the model “ultracompact”, the most affordable and simple, 18 cm thick and weighing less than half a kilogram. Amazon says it will provide speeds of up to 100 Mbps, which should be fast enough for standard web browsing.
The model “standard” It will be the most popular choice for homes, offices, and small businesses. It has a square design of 28 cm and a weight of 2.27 kg, offering a performance of up to 400 Mbps.
There will also be a model “Pro” 76 x 48 cm, which will reach terabit transmissions and will be primarily intended for oil rigs, ocean-going ships, or other similar use cases.
Amazon has yet to define the monthly cost of each of the services it will offer or exactly how much the antennas will cost, except that the standard receiver will be priced under $400. The company refers to the cost of production, not the final price for the end customer.
To say that the first two launches of the Kuiper project (still in the prototype phase) are scheduled for this month of May, with a full-scale satellite launch that will begin in the first half of 2024. The company promises connection speeds higher than the by Starlink (up to 1Tbps) and be able to serve a number of potential customers between 300 and 400 million.
Amazon isn’t just looking for broadband subscribers. As with its own-brand hardware, which is sold near cost, the company hopes to amass more customers using its services, placing more orders, watching more Prime Video series, or listening to more music.
