Amazon
Project Kuiper aims to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband service to places unreachable by traditional fibre or wireless networks. Credit: James Walker via Flickr.

E-commerce retail firm Amazon has revealed plans to invest more than $10bn for the development of the LEO satellite constellation.

The announcement came as the company secures approval from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with a 5-0 vote to deploy and operate the constellation of 3,236 satellites.

The ‘Project Kuiper’ initiative will deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband to areas that cannot be reached by traditional fibre or wireless networks.

Amazon senior vice-president Dave Limp said: “We have heard so many stories lately about people who are unable to do their job or complete schoolwork because they don’t have reliable internet at home.

“There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or where it doesn’t exist at all. Kuiper will change that. We appreciate the FCC’s unanimous, bipartisan support on this issue, and I want to thank Chairman Pai and the rest of the Commission for taking this important first step with us. We’re off to the races.”

The investment is expected to generate jobs and infrastructure in the US, build and scale the company’s ground network, as well as expedite satellite testing and manufacturing.

The Kuiper team will design and test the project in its research and development facility opening in Redmond, Washington.

With this potential investment, Amazon will take on Elon Musk’s SpaceX built Starlink network.

After receiving FCC’s approval in 2018, SpaceX already launched more than 500 satellites of the approximately 12,000 expected for the Starlink constellation.

The constellation is designed to offer broadband service in the US and Canada by the end of this year.

In April last year, Amazon reportedly revealed the plan to launch thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide global broadband internet access.