Vodafone has announced plans to use Amazon’s forthcoming satellite service to provide 5G connectivity to remote areas in Europe and Africa.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is a rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink. It has permission to deploy thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, providing a mesh of connectivity across the planet.
Project Kuiper is playing catch-up with Starlink, which already has more than 5,000 satellites hovering over the Earth. By contrast, Project Kuiper will deploy two prototype satellites in the next few months, before beta testing its service by the end of next year.
5G To Remote Regions
Vodafone will be one of the first partners to work with Project Kuiper on testing the service. It plans to use the satellites to deliver 4G and 5G connectivity in areas of Europe and Africa that might otherwise be out of reach.
Project Kuiper will provide bandwidth to cellular antennas, allowing them to connect to Vodafone’s core network. Those antennas will provide 4G or 5G reception to customers within the vicinity.
For Vodafone (and its African subsidiary Vodacom), it saves the expense of trying to reach remote areas with fiber or fixed-wireless connectivity. For Amazon and Project Kuiper, it provides a point of differentiation from Starlink, which has largely focused on serving remote consumers directly.
“Amazon is building Project Kuiper to provide fast, affordable broadband to tens of millions of customers in unserved and underserved communities, and our flexible network means we can connect places that have traditionally been difficult to reach,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services, in a statement.
“Teaming with a leading international service provider like Vodafone allows us to make a bigger impact faster in closing the digital divide in Europe and Africa. Together we’ll explore how we can help our customers get the most value from expanded connectivity, particularly in areas like residential broadband, agriculture, education, healthcare, transportation, and financial services.”
Project Kuiper Vs Starlink
The announcement is sure to provide further fuel for the already intense battle for domination of low Earth orbit.
With thousands of satellites already deployed, there are very real concerns that deploying more could increase the risk of collisions. There is particular anxiety over creating what’s known as the Kessler effect, where a collision creates debris that sparks further collisions, eventually snowballing until low Earth orbit becomes a huge expanse of debris that makes future satellite launches and even space travel impossible.
Last year, a U.S. appeals court upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), giving Starlink permission to launch more than 2,800 satellites at a lower orbit than previously agreed. The closer the satellites are to the Earth, the more internet bandwidth they can provide.
Amazon gained permission to launch 3,236 of its own satellites earlier this year, but only after modifying its collision avoidance plans, following complaints from rivals including Starlink.
The satellites deployed by Starlink, Project Kuiper and others have a limited lifespan of less than ten years, after which they are normally brought down to a lower altitude and left to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Some scientists have raised concerns that this process increases the chance of space debris.
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