HIGHLIGHTS
- Amazon has asked IN-SPACe for regulatory approval for Project Kuiper.
- In order to function in India, Project Kuiper will also need a GMPCS license.
- By 2026, Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites should launch 50 percent of them.
According to reports, Amazon is working to make Project Kuiper, its satellite-based broadband internet services, available in India. Before offering broadband services in the nation, the corporation has started the process of asking for licenses from several government agencies. In an effort to broaden access to the Internet, even in rural regions, Amazon’s Kuiper Systems will rely on a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to give access to low-latency and fast broadband services.
In order to obtain regulatory approval to offer satellite services in India, according to The Economic Times, Amazon has submitted an application to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). In order to offer satellite-based Internet services throughout the nation, Project Kuiper will additionally need a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite Services (GMPCS) license from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Amazon would reportedly provide Internet access at speeds up to 1Gbps, and the “affordable broadband” will be accessible throughout the nation, including “unserved and underserved communities” and rural and distant areas of India, according to the source.
On the website of the corporation, Project Kuiper states that 3,236 LEO spacecraft will be used to deliver Internet access, with half of these being placed into orbit by 2026. The availability of broadband Internet in the nation will probably also aid the corporation in increasing usage of its Prime Video and Amazon e-commerce platforms.
Notably, Amazon is not the first business to try to introduce satellite Internet services in India. The government has approved GMPCS licenses for OneWeb and Jio Satellite, but not for Elon Musk’s Starlink, which operates about 5,000 LEO satellites. In January 2022, Gadgets 360 revealed that Starlink provided refunds to clients who had “pre-ordered” satellite Internet subscriptions from the business.
No information has been released by Amazon regarding the cost for Project Kuiper Internet access in India. By the end of 2024, when the service is anticipated to be made accessible to users worldwide, we may anticipate learning more about the pricing, availability, and system requirements for the satellite-based Internet connectivity service.
