Retail giant Amazon recently shared an update regarding its new home internet service.
The first official satellite tests proved a success and brought Amazon one step closer to providing broadband to regions around the world that currently lack accessible internet.
“In October, we hit a major milestone in our journey to commercialize Project Kuiper when we launched two end-to-end prototype satellites into space, and successfully validated all key systems and sub-systems—rare in an initial launch like this,” said Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy.
“Kuiper is our low Earth orbit satellite initiative that aims to provide broadband connectivity to the 400-500 million households who don’t have it today (as well as governments and enterprises seeking better connectivity and performance in more remote areas), and is a very large revenue opportunity for Amazon. We’re on track to launch our first production satellites in 2024. We’ve still got a long way to go, but are encouraged by our progress.”
The project was first announced in 2018 after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave Amazon a license to operate and deploy Project Kuiper. Even though Amazon has undergone significant changes in leadership since Kuiper was first announced, the company continues to prepare for an official consumer launch.
In 2023, the company succeeded in establishing over 1,000 prototype satellite dishes scattered across the United States. These tests proved highly successful and let Amazon move on with the new satellite deployments.
Amazon is breaking its internet access up into three pricing tiers. Standard provides speeds of up to 400 Mbps, while the Pro plan will offer up to 1 Gbps (though at a steeper cost). There will also be a smaller and more travel-friendly Portable plan with max speeds of up to 100 Mbps. While it’s noticeably slower, the device is small enough to fit inside of someone’s bag or pockets.
As of now, the monthly costs are unknown.