Amazon has officially confirmed that they will be launching satellite internet services in India. The company aims to bring affordable broadband internet services to rural areas of India. Amazon is already in touch with the Indian Government to obtain the spectrum licenses required to operate satellite communication services in India.
Amazon’s satellite internet services are called ‘Project Kuiper’. The potential competitors for Amazon in the satellite internet services market are Starlink by SpaceX, Airtel-backed OneWeb, and even Reliance’s Jio satellite.
Amazon To Launch Satellite Internet Services in India
In an interview with the Economic Times, an Amazon representative confirmed that the company has major plans to launch satellite internet services in India. Amazon’s IT business has long-term initiatives planned for India, which include satellite communication.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper will use a constellation of 3236 satellites in the lower earth orbit, to serve internet connectivity to remote areas. The concept is similar to Starlink by SpaceX. As of now, Kuiper is in the testing phase and has not rolled out to the public yet.
As per the ET, Amazon has already applied to get approvals for its satellite communications services with the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space). The company is also expected to apply for a GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) license with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Amazon already has three potential competitors for satellite services in India. Reliance’s Jio Satellite and Airtel-backed OneWeb have already received GMPCS permits in India. Starlink’s application is reportedly in process as well.
Amazon’s Kuiper satellite internet services are expected to offer speeds anywhere between 100Mbps to 1Gbps. The company has not yet announced any commercial subscription plans, and is expected to reveal its official plans next year.
Amazon’s IT Business Is Bigger Than You Think
Amazon is popularly known as a global e-commerce platform known for its large inventories, same-day deliveries, etc. The company also has Amazon Prime Video, a video streaming platform that competes with Netflix and other similar platforms.
Apart from e-commerce, Amazon is the world’s largest cloud services provider, with its Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. The AWS division of Amazon has an operating revenue of $80 billion, with net profits of $23 billion in the year 2022 alone.
In terms of size, AWS is even bigger than Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. With a market share of over 32%, AWS handles almost 1/3rd of the total internet traffic in the world. Amazon has been investing heavily in its IT businesses and has been rapidly expanding in growing markets like India.
Amazon already has a huge dataset of people’s spending patterns and the geography-wise density of the population, with its e-commerce business. The company can use this data to smartly deploy its satellite internet services in regions where internet connectivity is scarce. Hence, Amazon is expected to be a major player in satellite internet services not just in India, but globally as well.
