Project Kuiper is Amazon’s initiative to provide fast and affordable broadband to communities worldwide. The low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network will use small, low-cost customer terminals to communicate with satellites passing overhead. Amazon’s customer terminal design is smaller, more affordable, and more capable than other LEO constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink.
The standard customer terminal measures less than 11 inches square and 1 inch thick, delivering speeds of up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps) and costing less than $400 each. Project Kuiper also offers an ultra-compact design for residential customers and a high-bandwidth model for enterprise, government, and telecommunications applications.
Project Kuiper’s customer terminals are powered by Amazon’s baseband chip, Prometheus, which combines the processing power of a 5G modem chip, the capability of a cellular base station, and the ability of a microwave backhaul antenna into a single custom chip. Prometheus is also used in Project Kuiper’s satellites and ground gateway antennas, allowing the system to process up to 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of traffic on board each satellite.
Amazon is applying its experience in building and shipping hundreds of millions of devices to Project Kuiper’s customer terminal design and production processes. The team is scaling its infrastructure to build tens of millions of units for customers.
Project Kuiper is preparing to deploy its first two prototype satellites and expects to begin mass-producing satellites by the end of 2023. The first production satellites will launch in the first half of 2024, with the earliest customers gaining access to the service later that year.
HOW DOES PROJECT KUIPER COMPARE TO SPACE’X STARLINK ?
While Project Kuiper has made significant strides in designing small, low-cost antennas to bridge the digital divide, it lags behind SpaceX’s Starlink in terms of satellite deployment and cost efficiency. Amazon has yet to launch a single satellite for its Project Kuiper initiative, and it does not appear to be close to doing so.
Starlink’s reusable rocket system gives it a significant cost advantage over Kuiper. Furthermore, Starlink currently has over 3,500 satellites in space and has introduced a second-generation satellite that promises to be lighter with much greater bandwidth.
In contrast, Project Kuiper has been slow to progress since its announcement in 2018, and even faced criticism from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who called Jeff Bezos a copycat. Moreover, while Starlink has already revealed its upfront and monthly costs for its service, Project Kuiper has not yet disclosed its pricing plans.
For residential customers, the upfront cost for Starlink’s system is $599, with a monthly premium of $120 for fixed addresses and $150 for RV customers. While there is no information on Project Kuiper’s monthly costs, its customer terminal designs, and the Amazon-designed baseband chip Prometheus are promising developments that could make its service more accessible and affordable for underserved communities.
