What Is Amazon’s Project Kuiper?

Amazon's Project Kuiper is all about taking on the digital divide. By putting together its own satellite constellation in low Earth orbit, Amazon will be able to beam satellite internet to places in the U.S. and around the world that either don't have adequate internet access or don't have any access at all. In particular, Amazon's goal is to offer broadband service that is fast, reliable, and easy on consumers' wallets.

The traditional satellite internet providers in the U.S., HughesNet and Viasat, have geostationary satellites around 22,000 miles above Earth, which stay in place over a particular location by moving at the same speed as the planet rotates. LEO satellites, on the other hand, are much closer at only around 350 miles up. The LEO satellites orbit Earth, completing a lap approximately every 90-120 minutes, and form an interconnected transmission network that allows the satellites to send data amongst each other at much faster speeds.

These differences are what will allow LEO satellite internet providers like Starlink and Project Kuiper to outshine and outperform the established satellite internet providers by providing faster download speeds, lower latency, and more reliability. Plus, companies like Amazon and SpaceX hope to make it affordable, too.

Project Kuiper Launch Date

It’s not yet clear when Amazon’s Project Kuiper will begin offering internet service, but the official launch date is likely still a few years away.

Amazon announced Project Kuiper back in spring 2019. In July 2020, the company got approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy and operate its satellite constellation and announced that it would invest $10 billion into the project.

According to the conditions of Project Kuiper's FCC authorization, half of the 3,236 satellites will need to be launched by July 2026. That leaves Amazon with a tight deployment timeline. To meet its deadline, the company will be "launch agnostic" and rely on multiple external partners for launching their satellites. Amazon has already inked a deal with their first one: United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin venture that will provide nine Atlas V launch vehicles. While that's a good start, they'll need more launch capacity, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket launch company might also be able to help out alongside others.

Amazon has yet to send any of the 3,236 satellites planned for their constellation into low Earth orbit, and no launches have been announced yet. While the company offered some details about the initial design and technology behind their customer terminals, the antennas still need to be produced and tested in the wild, as well.

To that end, it's likely that Amazon will offer a closed beta before offering service to the general public, just as Starlink has done. There's no word from Amazon about a beta yet, but we'll keep you posted when it becomes possible to sign up for Project Kuiper.

Project Kuiper Pricing

Amazon has not announced pricing for Project Kuiper yet, though you can expect that both the monthly service and customer terminal pricing will be competitive. From the beginning, Amazon has emphasized that its goal is to connect as many people as possible, and keeping costs reasonable is a key part of that vision.

While Amazon could position Project Kuiper’s price point as affordable relative to traditional satellite internet providers (which typically offer expensive equipment and service with data caps), it's much more likely to have pricing comparable to the other new kid on the block, Starlink. SpaceX currently charges a flat $99/month for unlimited service with their beta program and $499 upfront for the Starlink terminal.

Amazon has already revealed that Project Kuiper's antenna will be relatively small and thus less costly to produce, so their customer terminal may be priced below $499 in order to compete against Starlink. With Amazon's incredible financial resources, it shouldn't be hard for the company to offer a lower upfront cost, even at a loss, in order to gain customers quickly.

Project Kuiper Design

Amazon aims to make fast satellite internet service accessible to people all over the U.S. and the world. For this goal to work, the customer terminal that connects users to Amazon's satellites needs to be affordable and relatively small, so the company has been hard at work innovating with its antenna design.

According to the latest information from Amazon on their design breakthroughs, their phased array antenna is set to use the Ka-band frequency for higher bandwidth and improved performance. With a mere 12-inch diameter, it will be three times smaller and lighter compared to previous antenna designs, hopefully making it cheaper to produce and easier to install.

(Image: Amazon)

Project Kuiper Projected Speeds

Amazon has begun putting their initial antenna design through testing and has already shared some results regarding speed, though these should be taken with a grain of salt.

Amazon says that the antenna can deliver a throughput of 400Mbps, which is more than adequate speed compared to traditional satellite internet offerings from HughesNet and Viasat but slower than the 1Gbps speeds that Starlink claims to eventually achieve.

Testing also showed that the antenna is capable of streaming 4K video from a geostationary satellite, which is 50 times farther away than the soon-to-be-launched Project Kuiper satellites will be, so it’s not possible to judge future latency based on this.

While these results sound promising, it's important to note that any testing results won’t be truly meaningful after the customer terminal design is finalized and the Project Kuiper satellites are in low Earth orbit. Only then can we get concrete numbers for download speed and, very importantly, latency. Even if you have high download speeds, satellite internet users can experience noticeable latency because of the long distances that data has to travel between Earth and the satellites. This is what causes the lag that makes using the internet feel so slow when you're doing real-time activities like live video chats or gaming. Since LEO satellites are much closer than geostationary satellites, latency with Project Kuiper will be significantly better than with HughesNet or Viasat, as Starlink has already demonstrated.

Who Is Project Kuiper Best For?

There are many places in the U.S. and around the globe with limited to no broadband internet access. In many rural parts of the U.S. in particular, access to cable, DSL, 5G, or traditional satellite internet providers can be overpriced, non-existent, or unreliable. This digital divide is an issue that has become more pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic, as many have turned to remote work, virtual schooling, and telemedicine.

With Project Kuiper, Amazon’s plan is to improve broadband access in the U.S. and beyond by offering reliable satellite internet with high speeds, low latency, and an affordable price. This triple-threat combination is something that traditional satellite internet companies like HughesNet and Viasat have not been able to accomplish, which has created demand for companies like Amazon and SpaceX to bring their LEO satellite internet projects to market.

The basics of satellite internet

Is satellite internet the future?

Satellite internet, particularly from providers like SpaceX and Amazon that will have LEO satellites, can bring internet access and adequate performance to locations that otherwise might not have better options, like rural areas. Satellite internet isn’t meant to serve densely populated cities, so it’s not going to be the best option for people who have access to alternatives like cable internet.

What is satellite internet and how does it work?

With satellite internet, data is transmitted to and from satellites above the Earth wirelessly. This allows you to access the internet without needing a wired connection like cable, fiber, or DSL.

What is the fastest internet type?

The fastest and most reliable internet type you can get is fiber, which has low latency and can reach download speeds of 2Gbps.

What is the best internet for streaming?

The best type of internet for streaming, whether it’s something live or your favorite Netflix series, is fiber because it offers the best download speeds, similarly high upload speeds, and low latency.

How fast is satellite internet?

How fast satellite internet feels depends not just on download speed, but also on latency. Since LEO satellites are much closer to Earth than geostationary ones, providers like Starlink and Project Kuiper will end up with much lower latency than HughesNet and Viasat, since the data will have less distance to travel. This will result in less lag when you’re trying to do a live video chat, for example.

When it comes to download speed, it will vary, but HughesNet and Viasat can reach up to 25Mbps and 150Mbps respectively. Starlink and Project Kuiper will likely blow them out of the water in terms of download speed, with Starlink already hitting up to 1Gbps during its beta.

Satellite Internet Providers Compared

The two established players in the satellite internet space—HughesNet and Viasat—are in for a shake-up. New providers with LEO satellite constellations are coming onto the scene to offer better speeds, latency, and prices. Starlink is leading the pack, and Project Kuiper is soon to join the fun.

Project Kuiper vs. Other Satellite Internet Providers

Internet provider	Download speed	Latency	Monthly data	Price
Project Kuiper	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
Starlink	Up to 1Gbps	20-30ms	Unlimited	$99/mo.
HughesNet	Up to 25Mbps	700ms	20-50GB	$70-150/mo.
Viasat	Up to 150Mbps	700ms	Unlimited	$99.99-$119.99/mo.

Satellite internet from the traditional providers, HughesNet and Viasat, has been plagued with mediocre speeds, high latency, data caps, expensive installation, and costly plans. This dreary landscape is set to change for the better when Starlink comes out of beta and becomes officially available. Currently priced at $99/month, Starlink is an affordable option with up to 1Gbps download speed, far lower latency, and no data caps. When Project Kuiper launches, there will be even more competition in this space, and we can expect to see pricing and speeds comparable to Starlink from Amazon.

Although neither Starlink nor Project Kuiper are available to the public yet, you can still have a look at internet plans currently available in your area. Here are some of the most popular satellite internet plans of the moment:

#1	Starlink	Starlink Satellite Speed 100 Mbps $55/mo	100%	View Plan
#2	Starlink	Starlink Satellite Speed 400 Mbps $130/mo	44%	View Plan
#3	Hughesnet	Hughesnet Satellite Speed 50 Mbps $64.98/mo	22%	View Plan
#4	Hughesnet	Hughesnet Satellite Speed 25 Mbps $49.98/mo	11%	View Plan
#5	Starlink	Starlink Satellite Speed 200 Mbps $85/mo	11%	View Plan

With SpaceX, Amazon, and others moving in on their territory, the established players in the satellite internet space are making moves. HughesNet has already gotten into the LEO game by investing in OneWeb, which has some satellites in LEO but hasn’t started offering service yet. Viasat, on the other hand, isn’t moving into LEO (at least not yet), and is focusing instead on iterating upon and improving their current tech–though the possibilities with that are limited and can’t hope to compete with the capabilities of LEO satellite internet.

How is Project Kuiper different from Starlink?

SpaceX's LEO constellation is already well underway. The first 1,000 Starlink satellites have already been launched, there have been over 500,000 preorders, and internet service is already being provided to paying beta testers. On the other hand, Amazon has yet to launch its first Project Kuiper satellite into LEO. Nevertheless, Project Kuiper has a lot of opportunities to differentiate itself from SpaceX’s Starlink and compete, despite being second in terms of its launch timeline.

With the company’s nearly bottomless financial resources and its commitment to invest $10 billion into Project Kuiper, hardly anything is out of the question when it comes to competing on pricing, which could make it easier to get a large base of initial customers. While it might seem hard to compete against Starlink’s already reasonably low monthly service cost of $99, Amazon could still go lower, or offer different tiers of service. It’s likely that Project Kuiper’s customer terminal will be priced lower than Starlink’s, since Amazon’s antenna design should be relatively cheap to produce because of its small size.

Project Kuiper could also use timing to its advantage. Being a few years later to market than Starlink means Amazon won’t have the pressure of trying to launch first and will have more time to focus on perfecting their technology prior to launch. Amazon will also be able to learn from the first mover’s growing pains from a technical and customer service perspective, which could mean better service and happier customers.

Project Kuiper FAQs

When will Project Kuiper be available?

Amazon has not announced when Project Kuiper will be available. Since no satellites have been launched yet, we can assume it will be a few years before Amazon will start offering internet service to the public. Find out more about Project Kuiper’s progress toward a launch date.

How much is Amazon's internet going to cost?

There’s no official word on pricing yet. But, it will probably be comparable to Starlink, which charges $499 upfront for the customer terminal and $99/month for service. Find out more about Project Kuiper’s potential pricing.

How fast is Amazon’s satellite internet service going to be?

We can expect Project Kuiper to keep pace with Starlink in terms of download speed and latency since both will be using LEO satellites. This means it’ll be faster than HughesNet and Viasat’s current offerings. Get the details about Project Kuiper’s projected speeds.

Is Starlink the same as Project Kuiper?

Both will provide satellite internet using satellites in low Earth orbit, but they’re owned by different companies and going at different paces. SpaceX’s Starlink already has over 1,000 satellites in orbit and is serving users in its beta phase, while Amazon’s Project Kuiper hasn’t yet gotten any satellites off the ground. Read more about their differing approaches.

What companies offer satellite internet and how do I get it?

Since Starlink is still in beta and Project Kuiper hasn’t taken off yet, the only two satellite internet providers with plans available to the public right now are HughesNet and Viasat. Check out the available plans and see how they compare.

Brittany McGhee

Staff Writer

Brittany is a writer for WhistleOut with several years of experience writing about tech in the US and Europe, with a focus on mobile. She is passionate about connecting people with technology that improves their lives, and her superpower is breaking down complex technical topics into actionable advice for the everyday person.

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