Amazon to launch satellites to offer internet to ‘unserved communities’ globally

Despite internet being a major part in our lives now, many areas around the world are deprived of the facility. Amazon plans to help such areas by providing high-speed, cheap satellite-based internet.

Amazon plans to send 3,236 satellites up in space in order to offer high-speed broadband internet to ‘unserved and underserved communities around the world’. Unlike traditional satellite internet, Amazon plans to use the satellites in low Earth orbit that can be operated cheaply and with lower latencies, reported GeekWire.

Codenamed ‘Project Kuiper’, it will consist of satellites at three various altitudes with 784 satellites at 367 miles, 1,296 satellites at 379 miles, and 1,156 satellites at 391 miles. These satellites will offer internet in areas ranging from 56 degrees north down to 56 degrees south, an area that covers 95% of Earth’s population.

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“This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet,” an Amazon spokesperson told PCMag. “We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision.”

Though Amazon is yet to confirm if it will build its own satellites or buy them from a third party, but an Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire that the firm will ‘of course look at all options’. Also, it is not really known when the service will be available or how much will it cost.

Moreover, Amazon is not the only one to go forward with such an initiative, Elon Musk’s SpaceX too plans to launch as many as 12,000 satellites, whereas Facebook is also developing an internet satellite of its own, reported The Verge.