Amazon joins SpaceX, OneWeb and Facebook in the race for space Internet services – TechCrunch

Amazon is officially joining the race to create a network of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide high-speed Internet services overland.

The company filed its first documents with the US government to approve the launch of a network of 3,236 satellites through a subsidiary called Kuiper Systems LLC, according to a report in the newspaper. GeekWire.

"The Kuiper Project is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, low-speed broadband connectivity to underserved and underserved communities around the world," said Amazon. in a statement. "This is a long-term project aimed at serving tens of millions of people without basic broadband access. We look forward to collaborating on this initiative with companies that share this vision. "

Named in the honor of an astronomer considered to be "the father of modern planetary science", Gerard Kuiper; Kuiper Systems is the latest foray into the space-based Internet networks of a US technology giant.

While private companies are looking to commercialize space, high-speed Internet is among the potential customers offering the best short-term profits, while providing the services needed to keep the remaining 3.8 billion people no internet access online.

In February, OneWeb, another company that planned to build a satellite network to provide high-speed Internet access, successfully launched its first satellites. According to CrunchBase, the company has raised at least $ 3 billion from investors such as Virgin, Coca Cola and the Bharti Group. This company is not alone in raising billions of dollars to develop these services.

SpaceX also plans to create a global network of satellites – in addition to its leading position as a launch service provider for companies seeking access to space.

In December, the company decided to leverage an additional $ 500 million to support its Starlink program, which would create a network of 11,000 satellites to cover the world with Internet connectivity. To date, the company has only launched two prototype satellites, although previous reports indicated that SpaceX had already announced that 400 satellites would be in orbit by the end of 2018.

Finally, the giant of social networks, Facebook is working on its own satellite capabilities. In a May report, IEEE Spectrum explained how Facebook had created a small subsidiary called PointView Tech, which was developing a new satellite called "Athena", capable of delivering data ten times faster than SpaceX's Starlink satellites.

Amazon's Kuiper satellite service complements the work that another company from Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, is doing on the design, development and production of launchers for launching payloads.

Blue Origin has already signed contracts for a multi-launch contract with Telesat, another company. develop a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will offer fiber-optic broadband services worldwide.