Amazon’s Satellite-Internet Ambitions Move Closer to Reality

Amazon’s satellite-powered internet business is closer to getting off the ground. The company recently unveiled the antennas that future subscribers of its Project Kuiper internet service would need to communicate with the satellites it plans to start mass producing in 2023. It isn’t clear when the first of those satellites will be blasted into orbit, but Amazon has said it expects to begin delivering broadband connections for some customers by the end of 2024. Amazon is one of several companies that either are offering or plan to offer high-speed, low-latency internet connections via satellites orbiting relatively close to Earth. They say that kind of performance will distinguish their offerings from other internet services that depend on satellites stationed farther away, where beams cover more of Earth at once but face longer times sending and receiving signals. Still, Project Kuiper and the others will have competition from within the satellite industry, as well as from companies that have built out on-the-ground internet infrastructure.