Project Kuiperthe low Earth orbit satellite broadband network of amazon, and Vrio Corporationparent company of Directv Latin America and Sky Brazil, announced a strategic alliance to offer connectivity in seven South American countries.
In this way, the internet of Jeff Bezosthe founder of Amazon and the second richest person in the world, with a personal wealth of 203.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Vrio plans to distribute Project Kuiper services to residential customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia through DirecTv Latin America and Sky Brasill. “This agreement will bring new options for affordable, high-speed Internet connectivity to an area with a total population of approximately 383 million people, including approximately 200 million people who, according to estimates by the world Bankthey are not yet connected to the Internet,” they said from Amazon.
“We launched our satellite factory and in a few months we will begin launches, so that in 2025 we will have everything ready to start services with some countries. In total we will put into orbit 3,236 satellites that will require a total investment of USD 10 billion“, he detailed to Infobae, Bruno HenriquesBusiness Development leader in Latin America for Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
“The digital divide is a big problem throughout the region. That is why we aim to achieve a great differential with satellite internet, which can reach areas where it is very difficult to deploy terrestrial infrastructure, such as fiber optics,” he explained.
— What will be the technology that will be deployed to provide service?
— The satellites will circle the globe every 90 minutes. We need the terminals (antennas that will be installed in homes or companies that use the service) to be able to track the satellites. There always has to be a satellite in the sky available. Thus, anyone who has electricity and a place with a view of the sky will have the same quality of connection that anyone else has in the center of Buenos Aires. Project Kuiper approved two satellite prototypes within the framework of its successful mission Protoflight. We will begin deploying the satellite constellation in the coming months and will begin service demonstrations with Vrio and other select customers later in the year. The satellites will have laser communication between them, as if it were a network in the sky. No matter where the client is, we will always be able to connect. The constellation will have the capacity to serve tens of millions of customers around the world.
— What will the service cost in the country?
— The cost has not yet been defined, but we understand that there are clients with different needs and therefore the prices will be different by country, by type of client and by type of application. Being Amazon, we are obsessed with accessibility. What we have announced are the capabilities of our terminals. We will offer a compact terminal with up to 100 MB per second and a standard one, which will work up to 400 MB per second. The latter will cost approximately USD 400.
DirecTV and Sky will use Project Kuiper’s high-bandwidth, low-latency satellite network to bring Internet to areas that would otherwise be difficult and prohibitively expensive to serve.
Dario Werthein, president of Vrio Corp. assured that “this alliance is in line with our strategy of extending our services to all of South America. We are concerned about reducing the technological gap and, even more so, the digital gap for our future generations. Providing Internet access throughout the region guarantees the development of communities; and that is a commitment for our company.”
“Project Kuiper is a powerful opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives,” I detailed. Panos Panay, senior vice president of Devices and Services at Amazon. “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, run an online business, shop or enjoy streaming entertainment,” he added.
“Project Kuiper’s mission is to deliver fast, affordable broadband to areas that have traditionally been difficult to reach,” he said. Rajeev Badyalvice president of technology and project director.
“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 suppliers who share that vision. We look forward to working with Vrio to serve customers throughout South America,” Badyal said.
