Slashdot Mirror
Amazon To Offer Broadband Access From Orbit With 3,236-Satellite 'Project Kuiper' Constellation (geekwire.com)
Amazon is joining the race to provide broadband internet access around the globe via thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, newly uncovered filings show. From a report: The effort, code-named Project Kuiper, follows up on last September's mysterious reports that Amazon was planning a "big, audacious space project" involving satellites and space-based systems. The Seattle-based company is likely to spend billions of dollars on the project, and could conceivably reap billions of dollars in revenue once the satellites go into commercial service. It'll take years to bring the big, audacious project to fruition, however, and Amazon could face fierce competition from SpaceX, OneWeb and other high-profile players.
Project Kuiper's first public step took the form of three sets of filings made with the International Telecommunications Union last month by the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Washington, D.C.-based Kuiper Systems LLC. The ITU oversees global telecom satellite operations and eventually will have to sign off on Kuiper's constellation. The filings lay out a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit -- including 784 satellites at an altitude of 367 miles (590 kilometers); 1,296 satellites at a height of 379 miles (610 kilometers); and 1,156 satellites in 391-mile (630-kilometer) orbits. In response to GeekWire's inquiries, Amazon confirmed that Kuiper Systems is actually one of its projects.
Project Kuiper's first public step took the form of three sets of filings made with the International Telecommunications Union last month by the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Washington, D.C.-based Kuiper Systems LLC. The ITU oversees global telecom satellite operations and eventually will have to sign off on Kuiper's constellation. The filings lay out a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit -- including 784 satellites at an altitude of 367 miles (590 kilometers); 1,296 satellites at a height of 379 miles (610 kilometers); and 1,156 satellites in 391-mile (630-kilometer) orbits. In response to GeekWire's inquiries, Amazon confirmed that Kuiper Systems is actually one of its projects.
On the other hand - unlike municipal and other laws that prevent you from stringing your own cable on telephone poles or under roads: absolutely nothing is stopping you from putting up your own satellites.
Actually, no, there are laws saying that you can't put up your own satellites without permission from your government. Even if you don't launch them from your own country. https://www.technologyreview.c...
In the US, you need FCC permission to operate, and FAA permission to launch.
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/
How, exactly? If you put 3,236 satellites into a 300km orbit and spread them evenly over the surface of the planet, you'll still only have one satellite per 172,816 square kilometers. The chances of collision for something passing through to a higher orbit would be very small, particularly if you timed the launch to reduce the chances further.
These are much lower orbits (not geostationary).
"Bandwidth is easy. Latency is hard."
Is latency a real problem for anyone except a subset of gamers? Web surfing, email, netflix, VOIP, etc should all work fine. Sure, a ping will be 638 ms, compared to 30 ms, but that is still just a half a second. If you can get high speed, almost no one would notice the difference.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
Maybe theoretically/sometimes. In the real world, peak business hours especially, congestion increases that latency. This new constellation is LEO - so you will have latency that competes with traditional broadband.