Home Internet service has been something of a Holy Grail to Amazon (AMZN), the world’s second-largest retailer, right behind Walmart (WMT).
Why not? As the internet is essentially a retail market, it is right in Amazon’s wheelhouse. Now, Amazon is looking to pop a big dent in that market with the upcoming release of Kuiper, its home and small business internet service.
Coming to a House Near You: Amazon's Internet
In his 2022 “Letter to Shareholders,” company chief executive officer Andy Jassy updated the world on Amazon’s progress on what it calls “Project Kuiper.”
“Kuiper is another example of Amazon innovating for customers over the long term in an area where there’s a high customer need,” Jassy stated. “Our vision for Kuiper is to create a low-Earth orbit satellite system to deliver high-quality broadband internet service to places around the world that don’t currently have it.”
According to Jassy, there are hundreds of millions of households and businesses that don’t have reliable access to the Internet.
“Imagine what they’ll be able to do with reliable connectivity, from people taking online education courses, using financial services, starting their own businesses, doing their shopping, enjoying entertainment, to businesses and governments improving their coverage, efficiency, and operations,” he noted.
Jassy also stressed that Kuiper will deliver not only accessibility but affordability.
“Our teams have developed low-cost antennas (i.e. customer terminals) that will lower the barriers to access,” he said. “We recently unveiled the new terminals that will communicate with the satellites passing overhead, and we expect to be able to produce our standard residential version for less than $400 each.”
While the terminals are small (at 11 inches square, 1 inch thick, and weigh less than five pounds without their mounting bracket,), the Kuiper internet antennas pack a punch, Jassy said, with delivery speeds up to 400 megabits per second, powered by Amazon-designed baseband chips.
“We’re preparing to launch two prototype satellites to test the entire end-to-end communications network this year, and plan to be in beta with commercial customers in 2024,” Jassy said. “The customer reaction to what we’ve shared thus far about Kuiper has been very positive, and we believe Kuiper represents a very large potential opportunity for Amazon.”
According to the telecom publication Cord Cutter, Amazon is expected to follow SpaceX’s Starlink service, which started off beta testing the service in select markets.
“Amazon seems to be planning the same thing as Space X, slowly rolling out home internet across the United States and the world over the next few years,” Cord Cutter noted. “Look for signups for Amazon Home Internet to start in 2024 but expect there to be a waiting list, much like SpaceX’s Starlink service.”
