Vrio Corporationparent company of DirecTV Latin America and Sky Brasil, and Project KuiperAmazon’s low-Earth orbit satellite broadband network, today signed a strategic alliance to offer fast and affordable internet connectivity in seven South American countries, including Peru.
The brand will offer connection services to internet using satellite broadband network by Project Kuiper. Connectivity will be available for residential customers in PeruArgentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay through DirecTV Latin America and Sky Brasil, in accordance with the local regulations of each market.
This agreement will provide new options for affordable, high-speed internet connectivity to an area with a total population of approximately 383 million people, including some 200 million people who, according to World Bank estimates, are not yet connected to the Internet.
DirecTV Latin America and Sky Brasil will use the low-latency, high-bandwidth satellite network of Project Kuiper to bring the benefits of fast and reliable Internet to areas where it would otherwise be difficult and prohibitively expensive to provide high-quality services.
With Project Kuiper, companies will offer national coverage throughout each country, something that due to cost equations is not possible with the traditional connectivitysuch as fiber optics or fixed wireless connection, which require large infrastructures.
Dario Werthein, president of Vrio Corp., stated: “This alliance with Project Kuiper is in line with our strategy of extending our services to South America and strengthens us in regional leadership in connectivity, information, digital entertainment and promotion of innovation. “We are busy bridging the technological gap and, even more so, the digital gap for our future generations.”
He specified that his commitment translates into action, and consists of providing Internet access throughout the region, thus guaranteeing the community development; and that is a commitment of the company. He added: “We want to bring the benefits of affordable internet access to more communities to reach further with a service that will revolutionize the way people connect.”
Panos Panay, Senior Vice President of Devices and Services at Amazon, said that “Project Kuiper is a powerful opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.” And he noted that “there are hundreds of millions of households around the world that do not have access to reliable broadband Internet, which means they cannot participate in things we take for granted, such as being able to learn online, running an online business , buy or enjoy streaming entertainment. “Working with Vrio to provide affordable broadband access means we can enable many more people to build, connect and learn new skills.”
“Project Kuiper’s mission is to deliver fast, affordable broadband to areas that have traditionally been difficult to reach,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology and head of Project Kuiper at Amazon. He added: “Our network has the capacity and flexibility to serve tens of millions of customers around the world, and this distribution agreement with Vrio is part of our commitment to working with regional providers who share that vision. We look forward to working with Vrio to serve customers throughout South America.”
Project Kuiper has recently tested two satellite prototypes as part of its successful mission Protoflight. It will begin deploying its satellite constellation in the coming months and will begin service demonstrations with Vrio and other select customers later in the year.
