Sunday, July 7, 2019

"Amazon Seeks Permission to Launch 3,236 Internet Satellites" (AMZN)

Better watch out Elon.*
From Tom's Hardware, July 5:
Amazon wants the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to give it the go-ahead to launch 3,236 satellites that would be used to establish a globe-spanning internet network. Seeking Alpha reported that Amazon expects "to offer service to tens of millions of underserved customers around the world" via the network, which the company is developing under the code-name Project Kuiper.

News of Project Kuiper broke in April, when Amazon uncharacteristically confirmed its work on the project to GeekWire. The company often declines to comment on reports concerning its plans; it seems the development of thousands of internet-providing satellites is the exception. The company had yet to seek FCC approval for the project, though, which is what Seeking Alpha reported today.

So what does this plan to offer space internet with a weird name actually involve? Amazon explained in April:
“Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world....MORE
*IEEE Spectrum's Top Tech 2019:
SpaceX Confident About Its Starlink Constellation for Satellite Internet; Others, Not So Much
Despite technical glitches, SpaceX plans to launch the first of nearly 12,000 satellites in 2019