Amazon’s Ambitious Plan to Provide Broadband Internet in India From Space: Essential Information
Amazon plans to start offering ‘broadband from space’ services in India after receiving approval from the National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), as reported by ET Telecom.
According to the report, the move is expected to make Amazon the latest entrant in the fast-growing satellite communications race, where it competes with Elon Musk’s Starlink, OneWeb and Jio Satellite.
In addition, Amazon is expected to apply to the Ministry of Telecommunications for global personal mobile communications via satellites.
The report also claims that both Jio Satellite and OneWeb have successfully obtained a GMPCS license – and Elon Musk’s Starlink application will be reviewed soon.
After these processes are completed, the Seattle-based tech giant is expected to offer several services to Indian users as part of its broadband program from space. These services include broadband connections from 1 megabit per second to 1 gigabit per second.
In particular, such operations have become possible after the Government of India allowed private constellation operators of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to start providing broadband space services to users under India’s 2023 Space Policy.
ET Telecom also reported that two prototype satellites were launched as part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and that Amazon plans to launch 3,236 LEO satellites and begin operations in 2024.
