While Starlink has taken off from his European competitor Etelsat, Amazon does not intend to leave him too much. His Kuiper solution, which must be launched at the end of the year in France, has exceeded a significant course in its conquest of space.
The electronic commerce giant announces that its subsidiary has already launched 102 satellites implemented in low orbit. For the occasion, Amazon has helped Spacex and its Falcon9 rocket, a company founded by Elon Musk, which is also behind Starlink.
1,600 satellites in orbit in July 2026
A cat and mouse game, however, only its beginnings, since in the long term, Kuiper must have 3,236 satellites, part of which will be placed around the earth thanks to Ariane 6. Starlink, currently 8,000. The limit exceeded today is, therefore, 3% of the expected total constellation.
We will not have to go through Amazon, because the company has until July 2026 to reach 1,600 satellites in orbit required by the American Telecommunications Gendarme, the FCC. Therefore, 83 launches are expected in the next eleven months.
In France, where Starlink is already present, Kuiper must be launched at the end of 2025. The service has received the authorizations of ARCEP to operate in France. All that remains are prices and subscribers.
In Europe, 40 million homes have not yet had very high speed Internet access, therefore, the possible financial Maná is important. That is good: this is what Kuiper wants to offer with a very low latency as his Starlink competitor. In addition, Amazon had reminded Tech & Co who only took one hundred devices in service to operate his network.
Source: BFM TV
