Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, two tycoons who until recently fought over who was the richest man in the world, are going to take their rivalry to the sector of satellite internet terminals. Amazon is already beginning to compete against Elon Musk’s Starlink, and has presented three client terminals of its upcoming high-speed satellite internet service, dubbed the Kuiper Project. The company owned by Jeff Bezos has shown new compact devices designed to be installed outside buildings in order to communicate with satellites.
These new terminals, designed for families and small businesses, measure less than 30 centimeters wide and weigh less than 3 kilos. As Amazon has announced, the Kuiper Project will also have another smaller terminal model, which will act as a more portable and affordable option.
The presented device will provide speeds of up to 400 megabits per second, while the economic one will reach 100 Mbps. The company’s largest terminal, aimed at business and government customers, will offer speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
Amazon has assured that it expects to produce the terminals for “less than 400 dollars each”, although it has reiterated that it is still far from setting prices for the terminals and the broadband service.
The Kuiper Project aims to offer internet to its customers through a constellation made up of more than 3,000 broadband satellites. In other words, it is the service with which Amazon will compete against SpaceX’s Starlink system, which already has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit that offer internet to users in dozens of countries. The technology giant hopes to reach tens of millions of people with this satellite internet service.
Amazon expects to launch production satellites in the first half of 2024 and could start offering internet service to customers later this year.
In addition, the company plans to launch two prototype satellites into space in May to begin generating its own constellation around the Earth. In all, Amazon is expected to fly a total of 83 missions over a five-year period to put 3,236 satellites into orbit.
