FCC OKs Amazon's Broadband Satellite Constellation Project

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has received approval from the Federal Communications Commission for a project to field and operate a constellation of more than 3K satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide broadband service.

The company said Thursday it will invest over $10B in Project Kuiper to expand the delivery of satellite-based internet access to underserved and unserved communities in the U.S. and worldwide, advance satellite manufacturing and testing work and build up the ground network.

“There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or where it doesn’t exist at all. Kuiper will change that,” said Dave Limp, a senior vice president at Amazon.

He added the company’s investment will support job creation and infrastructure development across the country.

Amazon said it will work with partners in both public and private sectors to pursue the satellite constellation project, which will offer ground station service to clients and backhaul platforms to wireless service providers extending 5G and LTE services to new regions.

Design and testing work on Project Kuiper will occur at the company’s research and development facility in Redmond, Wash.

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