SpaceX isn’t the only satellite broadband game in town. In a new blog post detailing its new, low-cost customer terminals for Project Kuiper, its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network, Amazon confirmed that it will be launching a broadband service next year, and while pricing appears to be unknown, early customers can expect to gain access to the service in the second half of 2024. Three types of terminals will be available, including a high-bandwidth model for more demanding users who desire speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). All of these terminals are powered by Prometheus, an Amazon-designed baseband chip.
“Our goal with Project Kuiper is not just to connect unserved and underserved communities, but also to delight them with the quality, reliability, and value of their service,” said Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s vice president of technology for Project Kuiper. “From day one, every technology and business decision we’ve made has centered on what will deliver the best experience for different customers around the world, and our range of customer terminals reflects those choices.”
From an Amazon post:
To use the service, customers will install an outdoor antenna—called a customer terminal—to communicate with satellites passing overhead. Traditionally, this equipment has been too large, too complex, and too expensive for many customers, making it difficult for LEO constellations to bridge the digital divide in a meaningful way.
An affordable high-performance design for residential and small business customers: Project Kuiper’s standard customer terminal measures less than 11 inches square and 1 inch thick. It weighs less than five pounds without its mounting bracket. Despite this modest footprint, the device will be one of the most powerful commercially available customer terminals of its size, delivering speeds up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps). Amazon expects to produce these terminals for less than $400 each.
An ultra-compact design to help connect even more customers: A 7-inch square design will be Project Kuiper’s smallest and most affordable customer terminal. Weighing just 1 pound and offering speeds up to 100 Mbps, its portability and affordability will create opportunities to serve even more customers around the world. This design will connect residential customers who need an even lower-cost model, as well as government and enterprise customers pursuing applications like ground mobility and internet of things (IoT).
A high-bandwidth design for the most demanding needs: Project Kuiper’s largest, most capable model is designed for enterprise, government, and telecommunications applications that require even more bandwidth. The device measures 19 inches by 30 inches, and will deliver speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).
Powered by Amazon-designed custom chips
Project Kuiper customer terminals are powered by an Amazon-designed baseband chip, developed under the code name “Prometheus.” Prometheus combines the processing power of a 5G modem chip found in modern smartphones, the capability of a cellular base station to handle traffic from thousands of customers at once, and the ability of a microwave backhaul antenna to support powerful point-to-point connections—and it packs all of that into a single custom chip.
In addition to being in Project Kuiper’s customer terminals, Prometheus is also used in Project Kuiper’s satellites and ground gateway antennas, allowing the system to process up to 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of traffic on board each satellite.
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →We will see. Takes a while to get all those satellites up there.
I will believe it when I see it.
Amazon as a whole seems to be getting worse. They no longer offer much in Prime two day shipping and their customer service seems to be lacking. I ordered a new router from them and got a clearly used one that wasn't even packed in a box just the router box with a shipping label with no cellophane.
not wrong there, also a lot of what you can buy on amazon is not sold by amazon which is far from helping either.
Here in Belgium/Netherlands we have a similar company and most of the stuff I order there goes fine, but most of the collectors edition games I got from there in recent years have caused problems.
CP2077 (for the Xbox) had been previously opened and parts were missing others damaged. and arrived unpackaged (returned and refunded)
Horizon: forbidden west has been lost at least I got a refund
State of decay 2 bundle got delivered without the game had to return it and then got the correct bundle
They also work a lot with 3rd party sellers these days which i'm not a fan off.
lol.....good luck with that Bezos. Musk is, what, 2 years in to deploying satellites and still at not even 10% deployment.
First starlink launch was May 2019 - so yeah, four years. And he’s been basically packing every single SpaceX commercial flight with them to ensure the flights are 100% loaded, in addition to starlink-only launches - and that’s with the highest launch tempo of any space operator anywhere ever. So yeah - good luck catching up to that. Not impossible… but extraordinarily unlikely.
And the Geosynchronous wars HAVE BEGUN!
Beware driving down the road...