{"id":17993,"date":"2019-07-05T18:22:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T10:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amazon-asks-fcc-for-approval-of-project-kuiper-broadband-satellite-operation\/"},"modified":"2019-07-05T18:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T10:22:55","slug":"amazon-asks-fcc-for-approval-of-project-kuiper-broadband-satellite-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amazon-asks-fcc-for-approval-of-project-kuiper-broadband-satellite-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon asks FCC for approval of Project Kuiper broadband satellite operation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jeff
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the re:MARS conference in Las Vegas. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amazon is asking the Federal Communications Commission for approval of its Project Kuiper satellite broadband venture, and referring to potential synergies with Amazon Web Services as a strong selling point.<\/p>\n

Related: GeekWire\u2019s coverage of Project Kuiper<\/h4>\n

GeekWire first reported news of Project Kuiper in April, when Amazon revealed plans to put more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit for global broadband coverage.<\/p>\n

That revelation was contained in documents that were filed with the International Telecommunication Union. On Thursday, Amazon\u2019s wholly owned Kuiper Systems subsidiary followed up with a fresh set of FCC filings.<\/p>\n

The filings confirm that the project would consist of 3,236 satellites in 98 orbital planes, at altitudes ranging between 366 and 391 miles (590 and 630 kilometers).<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon\u2019s mission is to be Earth\u2019s most customer-centric company, and the Kuiper System is one of our ambitious projects to fulfill this mission,\u201d the application reads. \u201cThe Kuiper System will deliver satellite broadband communications services to tens of millions of unserved and underserved consumers and businesses in the United States and around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the filings, Kuiper Systems cites studies showing that 3.8 billion people around the world lack reliable broadband service, and that 21.3 million Americans don\u2019t have access to fixed broadband.<\/p>\n

Last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos emphasized the rationale for the risky project during a fireside chat at the company\u2019s Amazon\u2019s inaugural re:MARS conference. \u201cThe goal here is broadband everywhere,\u201d Bezos said.<\/p>\n

Kuiper Systems\u2019 application says the satellite system would take advantage of the Seattle tech giant\u2019s expertise in providing consumer services, as well as the ground-based infrastructure that\u2019s been built for Amazon Web Services:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAmazon sells products and services to hundreds of millions of customers today via physical and online stores, entertainment content streaming, design and manufacturing of consumer electronics devices, and leading public cloud computing web services. Amazon also has global terrestrial networking and compute infrastructure required for the Kuiper System, including intercontinental fiber links, data centers, compute\/edge compute capabilities and the tools, techniques, and know-how to securely and efficiently transport data.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The application says \u201cAmazon will leverage its resources and capabilities to develop, implement and interconnect the Kuiper System and terrestrial networks to delight customers.\u201d Such statements seem to suggest links between Kuiper and other lines of business ranging from online sales to cloud services and video streaming.<\/p>\n

Other companies besides Amazon have big satellite ambitions as well: SpaceX, for example, has begun deploying satellites in low Earth orbit, or LEO, for its Starlink broadband constellation. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year that the revenue from Starlink could amount to $30 billion or more annually. OneWeb, Telesat and LeoSat Technologies also have plans for providing broadband via LEO satellites. That\u2019s led some experts to wonder how many mega-constellations the world needs, and how many satellites the night sky can handle.<\/p>\n

In fact, the FCC filings acknowledge that Project Kuiper\u2019s satellites would have to play nice with other companies\u2019 satellites when it comes to sharing broadcast spectrum and avoiding interference. Kuiper intends to use Ka-band radio frequencies, including a part of the spectrum that Iridium is already using for its next-generation telecom satellite constellation.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jxnH9NW3U9g<\/p>\n

Kuiper Systems\u2019 filings note that the FCC has laid out procedures for different companies to share spectrum, and so the venture is seeking waivers from the agency to proceed with systems and procedures that would address interference concerns. It\u2019s also seeking a waiver from an FCC requirement to serve all of the United States and its territories, on the grounds that parts of Alaska are too far north to get satellite reception from Kuiper\u2019s constellation.<\/p>\n

In its technical analysis, Kuiper Systems says it can start offering satellite broadband service once it finishes the first of five phases of deployment by putting 578 satellites in their proper orbits. Like SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellites, Kuiper\u2019s satellites would be launched into lower orbits at first, and then have those orbits raised once they\u2019re checked out.<\/p>\n

The filings don\u2019t go into detail about Project Kuiper\u2019s satellite design, but they do say the spacecraft would use phased-array antennas to produce \u201csteerable and shapeable\u201d beams. The satellites would use an \u201cunpressurized, non-explosive propellant\u201d for safety\u2019s sake. And to address concerns about orbital debris, the satellites would be designed to deorbit themselves in less than 10 years, even if they fall out of contact with ground controllers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no mention of when Kuiper\u2019s satellites would be launched, or which company would launch them. Bezos\u2019 privately held space venture, Blue Origin, could conceivably take on the job \u2014 but that could get tricky, because publicly traded Amazon would have to guard against conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

The filings confirm that Rajeev Badyal, the satellite engineer who once led SpaceX\u2019s Starlink effort but was reportedly fired last year, is the president and manager of Kuiper Systems. And although most of the jobs listed for Project Kuiper are in Bellevue, Wash., the headquarters for Kuiper Systems is listed as 410 Terry Ave. N. in Seattle\u2019s South Lake Union district \u2014 which is Amazon\u2019s headquarters building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the re:MARS conference in Las Vegas. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) Amazon is asking the Federal Communications Commission for approval of its Project Kuiper satellite broadband venture, and referring to potential synergies with Amazon Web Services as a strong selling point. Related: GeekWire\u2019s coverage of Project Kuiper GeekWire first […]<\/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":[275,252,962,20,442,21],"class_list":["post-17993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon","tag-broadband","tag-project-kuiper","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993"}],"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=17993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}