{"id":17445,"date":"2021-12-18T23:21:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T15:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/in-a-new-video-amazons-project-kuiper-highlights-satellite-broadband-for-folks-off-the-beaten-track\/"},"modified":"2021-12-18T23:21:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T15:21:30","slug":"in-a-new-video-amazons-project-kuiper-highlights-satellite-broadband-for-folks-off-the-beaten-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/in-a-new-video-amazons-project-kuiper-highlights-satellite-broadband-for-folks-off-the-beaten-track\/","title":{"rendered":"In a new video, Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper highlights satellite broadband for folks off the beaten track"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kuiper4-630x422.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-662990\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kuiper4-630x422.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kuiper4-1260x844.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kuiper4-768x514.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kuiper4.jpg 1353w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption> Rajeev Badyal, VP of technology for Project Kuiper, speaks at the project\u2019s Redmond facility. (Amazon via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper hasn\u2019t yet launched a single satellite, but in a video released this week, it\u2019s talking up what its broadband internet constellation will be able to do for rural connectivity.<\/p>\n<p>The video focuses on unmet broadband needs in Cle Elum (pop. 2,037), a town nestled in the Cascade Mountains of central Washington state.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cQuite a few people move out to this area because it\u2019s gorgeous, but people are reluctant to open small businesses due to the lack of reliable internet,\u201d Audrey Malek, founding partner of Basecamp Outfitters, says on camera.<\/p>\n<p>The solution \u2014 at least according to MiMi Aung, senior manager at Project Kuiper \u2014 is the 3,236-satellite constellation that her team is planning to start testing in orbit as early as next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven just right here in our backyard, right outside Redmond, there are areas where there is no internet connection, or extraordinarily poor connection, and we can make a huge impact right away,\u201d said Aung, who came to Amazon from NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she headed up the project team behind the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Project Kuiper: Fast, Affordable Broadband for Unserved &amp; Underserved Communities | Amazon News\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IIos1LjCgCc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Tyson Lamoreaux, vice president of network and infrastructure at Project Kuiper, stressed the potential for extending the reach of existing telecom infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExisting broadband providers and cellular providers can use Kuiper to be able to put a cellular tower in a place that\u2019s currently a dead zone, where right now they may not have any other option available to them \u201d he said. \u201cAnd we can go close those gaps in cellular service all over the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The video provides a few glimpses inside Project Kuiper\u2019s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., and a few hints at what its broadband service will offer when it becomes available sometime in the next few years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAffordability is Job One for us,\u201d said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper. \u201cThat\u2019s really important for us to keep that cost low, because if we don\u2019t, it\u2019s very difficult to get the unserved and underserved connected to our service. So we took on the challenge to design our satellites two orders of magnitude cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are no glimpses, however, at the satellites themselves. \u201cWe\u2019re designing the solar arrays, we\u2019re designing the reaction wheels,\u201d Badyal said.<\/p>\n<p>More than a year ago, Amazon won the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s conditional approval to put the first wave of its satellites in low Earth orbit \u2014 and announced that it\u2019ll spend more than $10 billion on the project. However, Amazon is still working with the FCC on the details \u2014 including plans for minimizing orbital debris and sharing spectrum with the likes of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink network and the OneWeb satellite constellation.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the video released this week focuses on the obstacles that the residents of Cle Elum and its surroundings are currently facing, in a world where broadband internet access is becoming virtually essential. But the video doesn\u2019t mention that Starlink is already available on a limited basis in communities ranging from Redmond (where SpaceX\u2019s satellites are manufactured) to Cle Elum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rajeev Badyal, VP of technology for Project Kuiper, speaks at the project\u2019s Redmond facility. (Amazon via YouTube) Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper hasn\u2019t yet launched a single satellite, but in a video released this week, it\u2019s talking up what its broadband internet constellation will be able to do for rural connectivity. The video focuses on unmet broadband [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[275,962,20,4336,442],"class_list":["post-17445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon","tag-project-kuiper","tag-satellite","tag-satellite-broadband","tag-satellites"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}