- Amazon reveals new details about Project Kuiper, its constellation of satellites that must eventually compete with Starlink
- The firm assures that its internet will be more efficient than Starlink with a traffic capacity of up to 1 Tbps over the entire constellation and access on Earth at 400 Mb/s or 1 Gb/s downlink depending on the subscription
- Amazon has also unveiled several types of antennas – visibly smaller and more discreet than those of Starlink
Clearly, Starlink remains the essential point of comparison when it comes to launching high-performance satellite internet access. In the making for years, Project Kuiper, the Amazon initiative that promises to deliver high-performance satellite internet access, has so far not really resulted in anything tangible.
It must be said that Elon Musk and SpaceX have a huge advantage over Amazon: they have an in-house launcher system with proven capabilities, which is not only ultra-efficient and reusable, but above all relatively economical to operate to launch a constellation of thousands satellite in low orbit.
Amazon says more about Project Kuiper
Amazon is also developing a launcher via Blue Origin. But this one is for the moment unable to put anything in orbit. It is basically an “elevator” in the form of a rocket, delivering a few minutes of weightlessness as the rocket plummets back to Earth.
As a result, the Kuiper project will necessarily have to be based on third-party commercial launchers, with increased costs. Amazon wants to launch 3,236 satellites into orbit initially, and has scheduled 92 heavy launches for this with Arianespace, but also Blue Origin (which has yet to demonstrate its ability to reach orbit) and United Launch Alliance.
To give a point of comparison, Starlink already has 3,700 satellites in orbit, and plans an initial deployment of 12,000 units with a possible extension thereafter up to 42,000 satellites. The speeds observed are around 50 to 150 Mbps for traditional users (latency between 20 ms and 40 ms), 150 to 500 Mbps for Starlink Business users, and up to 350 Mbps for Starlink Maritime.
For now, we remind you, Project Kuiper still has 0 satellites in orbit. We simply know that a launch of two experimental satellites, called “KuiperSat-1” and “KuiperSat-2” is set for May 2023. Amazon, via its subsidiary Kuiper Systems LLC, has the ambition to offer a constellation of 3,236 satellites to begin with. The service will be launched as soon as the firm has “a few hundred” satellites in orbit.
However, there is still talk of a “constellation of satellites on plans” – so we have to be quite careful with announcements about the capabilities of the future service. Because Amazon does not hesitate to affirm already at this stage that its service will be better in every way than Starlink. Thus, according to the firm, the constellation will have, in total, a higher bandwidth, of the order of 1 Tb/s – and the satellites themselves will have a longer lifespan (7 years).
We also know what the antennae will look like
Amazon also unveiled the antennas and terminals that customers of the Kuiper constellation will have to use. The “ultra-compact” model is only 18 cm in diameter and weighs around 450 grams. It should offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps, which is fast enough for browsing the web. The “standard” model is a 28 square centimeter antenna for a weight of 2.27 kg.
The maximum speed of this model will go up to 400 Mbps according to the firm. Finally, the 48 x 76 centimeter “pro” model will achieve speeds of up to 1 Gbps – it is intended primarily for oil rigs, ships at sea, or similar use cases.
Amazon is careful not to give precise prices for the time being. The firm simply specifies that the standard terminal involves a production cost of only 400 dollars – but of course, we will have to really wait for the start of mass production of the terminal to be sure. Similarly, we will have to wait for the official launch of the service in 2024 or 2025 to verify that Project Kuiper LLC can actually deliver the speeds announced.
