Amazon shows off the terminals for its upcoming satellite internet service. The tech company is expecting its Project Kuiper to serve tens of millions of customers eventually.
Amazon Shows Off the Terminals for Its Upcoming Satellite Internet Service
On Tuesday, Amazon offered a look a three of its customer terminals for its upcoming satellite broadband service known as Project Kuiper. Amazon in a blog post detailed residential, commercial, and ultra-compact terminals, which are all designed to be installed outdoors in a bid to communicate with satellites passing overhead.
Project Kuiper as you should know aims to beam internet service to customers from a constellation of over 3,000 broadband satellites in low earth orbit. The service will compete with other services such as SpaceX’s Starlink which has more than 2.000 satellites already in orbit and delivers internet to customers in tons of countries.
Amazon says that it expects Project Kuiper to eventually serve “tens of millions of customers.”
What You Need To Know About the Terminal
The terminal which is designed for residential and small business customers is less than 11 inches square and weighs less than 5 pounds, without its mounting bracket, as per Amazon. Project Kuiper also will have a smaller terminal that is 7 inches square and weighs 1 pound, which as you should know will serve as a more portable and affordable option according to Amazon.
The 11-inch terminal will help to deliver speeds up to 400 megabits per second, and the 7-inch terminal will also offer speeds up to 100Mbps. The largest terminal by the company which is aimed at enterprise and government customers, will measure 19 by 30 inches and then deliver speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, Amazon stated.
Cost of Production of the Terminals
And while Amazon said that it expects it to produce the terminals for “less than $400 each,” it, however, did not state what it plans on charging customers for the broadband service or the terminals.
When Will the Terminals Launch
Amazon has said that it expects to launch the production satellites in the first half of 2024 and that it could start to offer service to customers later in that year. The company as you should know is set to launch two prototype satellites on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket in the month of May.
