Amazon is seeking approval from US communications regulators to deploy more than 4,500 additional satellites as part of the company’s effort to deliver broadband Internet to regions around the world that lack high-speed service. heroine previously said it planned to spend at least $10 billion to build 3,236 such satellites through its Project Kuiper program. Late Thursday it sought approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a total of 7,774 satellites for the project.
On Monday, Amazon asked the FCC for approval to launch and operate two prototype satellites by the end of 2022.
Amazon said in the filing its satellites “will serve homes, hospitals, businesses, government agencies and other organizations around the world, including geographic areas where a lack of reliable broadband persists.”
“Although connectivity has improved on a global basis, only 51% of the global population and 44% of the population in developing countries are online,” the company filing said.
In 2020, the FCC approved the Project Kuiper plan to compete with a group of low-Earth orbit satellites starlink network being built by Elon Muskof SpaceX.
Amazon has disputed with Musk, most recently accusing the billionaire of ignoring various rules imposed by the government. Amazon founders Jeff Bezos and Musk are rivals in the private space launch business. Bezos’s Blue Origin challenged the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to SpaceX, but a judge dismissed the challenge on Thursday.
SpaceX has deployed more than 1,700 satellites. Earlier this week, the FCC approved Boeing’s application to launch and operate 147 satellites to provide high-speed broadband Internet access. Boeing first filed with the FCC in 2017, seeking approval to deploy a V-band constellation of mostly low-Earth orbit satellites.
Boeing said this week that it “sees a multi-orbit future for satellite technologies. As demand for satellite communications grows, there will be a need to diversify orbital arrangements and frequencies to meet unique customer demands.”
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