FCC Approves Amazon Project Kuiper Satellite Constellation

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has unanimously approved an application from Amazon to deploy and operate a constellation of 3,236 satellites for its Kuiper broadband internet service.

Amazon reported on its "dayone" blog the company will invest more than $10 billion on Project Kuiper. The investment will be used to build and scale the ground network necessary for the service, and accelerate testing and manufacturing of the satellites.

Amazon says that when the constellation is operational, it will deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband service to places where traditional methods of connecting to the Internet are not practical. Project Kuiper is intended to serve residential, commercial and educational customers in areas without reliable broadband.

A secondary mission for Project Kuiper will be to provide backhaul solutions for wireless carriers. According to the company, that will help expand LTE and 5G services to new regions.

The project is being developed at a new R&D facility being established in Redmond, WA.