The U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel website reported on May 1 that Amazon plans to send 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit to provide satellite Internet services. The project is called the Kuiper Project. In many ways, Michael Hitts, a space correspondent on the U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel website, said that this is a response and competition to the "Starlink" network of Musk and his space exploration technology company.
Space Exploration Company "Starlink"
Starlink, a project of the American Space Exploration Technology Corporation, plans to build a "Starlink" network of about 12,000 satellites in space between 2019 and 2024 to provide Internet services, of which 1584 will be deployed in low-Earth orbit 550 kilometers above the Earth and work will begin in 2020.
However, according to relevant documents, the company is also preparing to add another 30,000 satellites, bringing the total number of satellites to about 42,000.
At present, the "Starlink" program has run about 2,000 satellites in orbit, with a total of 250,000 users. The Federal Communications Commission has approved the company's launch of a total of 12,000 satellites.
Amazon "Kuiper"
In April, Amazon signed a multibillion-dollar contract with three different entities to help launch The Kuiper Project satellites. The three entities are Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance (a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin), and Arianespace in Europe. It was the largest rocket deal in the history of the commercial space industry. Amazon hasn't launched a satellite yet, but it could still be a big player in the race.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, it is estimated that 37 per cent of the world's population still does not have access to the Internet, of which 96 per cent live in developing countries. Tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google are already investing in digital infrastructure to support their own core services.
Caleb Henry, senior analyst at Quilty Analytics in the United States, said: "Amazon is called the company of everything, but without the Internet it is difficult to have a company of everything. Amazon's fastest-growing segment is AWS cloud services. To support this, they built a lot of internet infrastructure, whether it's data centers or fiber optics. ”
Henry said the space business is a "very natural extension of Amazon's data business and consumer business that can provide goods, electronics and resources to people around the world."
summary
The satellite communications market is worth tens of billions of dollars. There will be two or more space-based internet in this industry that will serve not only residential consumers, but any business or organization that relies on an internet connection. ”
Although Amazon has not yet launched any satellites, it dares to shout and be commendable, so let's look forward to the two technology giants' master moves and immortal fights.
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Source: Forward-looking network
Edit: Digital Wisdom State