Amazon Eyes Satellite Internet Service By 2024, Reiterates Over $10B Spend

  • Amazon.Com, Inc AMZN is preparing to launch its first two prototype satellites by early 2023 and provide internet-from-space service to the earliest Project Kuiper customers by 2024 end.
  • Amazon's FCC license requires it to deploy and operate at least half of our satellite constellation by July 2026.
  • On Tuesday, Dave Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of devices and services, revealed the timeline at a satellite industry trade show in Washington, DC. 
  • He also showcased various prototype user terminals. The prototypes included three different-sized antennas, including a small seven-inch-square model only slightly bigger than an Amazon Kindle, Bloomberg reports.
  • Amazon's most miniature model offers speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. A larger 11-inch-square antenna is capable of 400 megabits per second, and a 19-inch by 30-inch model can handle 1 gigabit per second. 
  • Amazon expects to manufacture the 11-inch-square version for less than $400 apiece.
  • Limp reiterated that Amazon planned to invest over $10 billion in the Kuiper venture.
  • Project Kuiper is Amazon's planned constellation of 3,236 low-Earth satellites to blanket the globe, similar to Elon Musk helmed SpaceX's Starlink broadband mega constellation, which has already launched roughly 4,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit.
  • Amazon has shipped the first two test Kuiper satellites to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a possible launch in May as secondary payloads on the debut flight of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket. ULA is currently targeting a May 4 launch.
  • Price Action: AMZN shares traded higher by 1.83% at $94.12 on the last check Tuesday.
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