The monopoly of Starlink, the satellite Internet connection offer developed by Elon Musk with his company SpaceX, is seeing its last days. Indeed, it is good e-commerce giant Amazon who has been working for several months at development of its own satellite offering. Code name: Kuiper!
What is the Amazon-led Kuiper Project?
The Kuiper project, it's roughly the same thing as Starlink: Amazon in turn wants to offer high-speed satellite Internet and at an affordable price all over the world, and therefore also in Europe, and therefore necessarily in France. This is why, since December 12 and until January 23, ARCEP has launched a public consultation concerning “the granting of an authorization to use radio frequencies to the company Amazon Kuiper Services Europe SARL to establish and operate a network open to the public for the fixed satellite service”. The frequency bands between Earth and space have been defined, with one imperative: that they do not interfere with any of the other frequencies already used.
Two prototypes have already been launched in November to validate the effectiveness of the chosen technology, and Amazon proudly announced a 100% success rate for these tests, whether it's flight computers, solar panels and other propulsion systems, or the performance obtained during 4K streaming and video calls. A promising and encouraging result, but Amazon will now have to manufacture and then deploy hundreds of satellites in low orbit, the sine qua none condition for obtaining reduced latency times. Or rather thousands if we are to believe its site, which puts forward the figure of 3 236 satellites.
2025 will therefore be a test year: ARCEP has already authorized the placing into orbit of 3 satellites connected to 2 earth stations, while the factory is expected to soon reach its full production capacity of 5 satellites/day. The goal of putting the Beta version into service is by the end of next year, and rumor has it that recruitment has already started in France…
Why choose a satellite connection?
On December 12, ARCEP published figures for the 3rd quarter of 2024 concerning the development of optical fiber: nearly 40 million premises can be connected, but 4 and a half million homes remain to be connected, mainly in the countryside and small villages of the national territory.
However, the wait is long for those who can no longer be satisfied with an ADSL speed of 15, 30 or at best 50 Mb/s. In these same areas, it can also be hard to trust to 4G or 5G Boxesdue to uneven and unstable mobile network. All that remains is the satellite Internet connection to finally get something to work, stream or play online, in 4K and with reduced latency times. Some were thus able multiply their flow rate by 10, as evidenced by a certain Geoffroy, a computer scientist from Center Brittany.
It remains to choose your supplier: Nordnet's prices have long been prohibitive, but they have become more affordable since Starlink is on the market, while Orange relies on Nordnet. Hoping that the arrival of Kuiper will lower prices!
