Written by Nick Wood
Amazon’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite initiative is finally off the ground, but one expert is already advocating for a rethink.
After multiple delays, the first two prototype versions of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites, Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2, finally blasted off on United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Atlas V rocket on Friday.
Once operational, they will allow Amazon to test out its upcoming satellite broadband service, which like Space-X’s Starlink and OneWeb will deliver broadband connectivity in hard-to-reach areas via a constellation of 3,236 satellites.
Like many other satellite operators, the Project Kuiper network will run on the Ka band. The satellites will connect to antennas installed at the customer’s premises, and to a network of gateway antennas connected to the Internet and public and private cloud infrastructure. Beyond that, Amazon hasn’t given much away when it comes to the specifics of the radio interface.
“It appears that it is taking the same vertically integrated approach, based on proprietary technology, to Starlink,” remarked Peter Kibutu, advanced technology lead for non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) at research firm TTP, in a research note.
“Amazon’s long-term plan should be to build a constellation based on 3GPP 5G NTN standards to benefit from a wider ecosystem of innovation and the ongoing performance enhancements offered by industry best practices,” he said. “This approach also enables integration with terrestrial networks and user terminals, that require conformance with standardised technology. This will enable Amazon to deliver broadband services to the mass-market and cover a wider range of use cases.”
Launching a 5G NTN-compatible network would certainly offer Project Kuiper a significant point of difference, one that could prove crucial by the time it enters commercial service.
