Amazon Gains FCC Approval To Launch Internet Satellites

In a move that will turn Amazon into an internet satellite provider, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) approved the company’s Project Kuiper. It will allow the tech company to operate 3,236 satellites.

Dave Limp, SVP at Amazon, points to the number of people who still do not have reliable broadband internet access to do their job from home, home school their children, or participate in activities that require logging on to the internet.

Amazon said it will make this offering a subscription-based service, a product available to consumers specifically in remote locations where wires cannot go and other types of signals are blocked. The idea is to give all better internet access regardless of where they are in the world.

Google continues its effort to offer a similar type of service through project Loon, an unmanned high-altitude balloon floating above 50,000 feet.

Amazon will invest more than $10 billion in Project Kuiper to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband services. It not only will create jobs and infrastructure across the United States, but provide support for advertisers to reach more consumers who today do not have internet access. It also will provide consumers with another way to stream movies available on Amazon Prime.

Nearly 4.57 billion people were active internet users as of July 2020, encompassing 59% of the global population, according to Statista data.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also has a company called Blue Origin, a space exploration company. Bezos is developing a tourism program similar to Virgin Galactic’s, but using a vertical takeoff, vertical-landing (VTVL) rocket-capsule system called New Shepard.

Amazon reported its second-quarter 2020 earnings results on Thursday, and revenue came in at $88.91 billion.

The company expects third-quarter net sales to come in between $87 billion and $93 billion, representing year-over-year growth between 24% and 33%.

Next story loading loading..