Amazon eyes bringing satellite internet business Project Kuiper to India
Amazon seems to have identified another market to launch its fast and affordable Internet service, Project Kuiper: India.
Job postings suggest that the US e-commerce conglomerate is looking to hire managers in India to launch its internet service, the company plans to use a constellation of satellites in low orbit of the US. The earth.
Position, based in Bengaluru, is looking to hire a Manager to execute and manage the licensing strategy for the project in India and Asia-Pacific countries. The company is also hiring a Chief Business Strategy Officer for its Country Development Team to "launch and operate" worldwide broadband service.
“A successful candidate will be both entrepreneurial and highly analytical, able to work extremely efficiently in a matrix organization and well versed in understanding how businesses operate in India. How and how to create innovative and innovative solutions for our customers,” Amazon describes in the work section. SEO.
The company, which is said to be working to roll out its internet service in India for more than a year, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Amazon announced Project Kuiper in 2019 with the goal of deploying a constellation of broadband satellite internet - take SpaceX's Starlink, at least on paper. The Seattle-based company has committed to investing more than $10 billion in the project and said it intends to bring affordable broadband to underserved and underserved communities around the world. .
Last year, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized the company to launch and operate a constellation of more than 3,200 Internet satellites. The company plans to launch its first satellite later this year and has indicated that the United States could be the first market where it will deploy Kuiper's Internet.
Alongside offering direct broadband connectivity to consumers, Project Kuiper has said it also plans to provide backhaul service to carriers. In April, Amazon announced its partnership with commercial space companies Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) to secure up to 83 launches for its low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite system.
Even as India is already the world’s second largest internet market, about half of its population is still offline. Data compiled by the World Bank shows that only 43 percent of India’s total population was using the internet in 2020, a figure that is significantly less than that of the U.S., where the internet penetration rate is 91 percent.
This explains why so many tech giants have attempted to launch their internet services in India over the years.
Last year, SpaceX’s Starlink announced plans to launch as many as 200,000 terminals in India by end of 2022. The company enthusiastically began taking pre-orders in India, until haphazardly abandoning the project after failing to secure the local government’s approval.
OneWeb, a Bharti Airtel-backed London-based company, is one of the key players to kick off their satellite-based broadband services in India. It has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organisation unit New Space to launch its satellites.
Tata Group-owned Nelco is also in the race to offer high-speed internet via satellites in India. Similarly, Reliance Jio announced its native satellite-based broadband service called Jio Space Technology in February, for which it has partnered with Luxembourgish satellite and terrestrial telecom provider SES.
“I’m very sure that by next year, we are going to get broadband satellite communication,” said Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt, Director General, Indian Space Association (IsPA), in an interview with TechCrunch.
Launched last year, IsPA has members including Larsen & Toubro, Nelco, One-Web, Bharti Airtel and Walchandnagar Industries. It engages with both government and its agencies and private players to operate as a “collective voice” of the Indian space industry.
Bhatt noted that the government would likely announce its New Space Policy 2022, which will fully clarify the regulatory regime.
“The initial broadband services by LEO constellations may be marginally costly, but market forces and volumes will overcome this. In the long run, satcom broadband will be ‘Fiber in the Sky,’ which will provide seamless communication to the user,” he said.
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