Taiwan is in talks with Amazon to collaborate on the new Kuiper satellite constellation for high-speed internet, the island’s technology minister said Tuesday, as the government seeks to boost the resilience of its communications.
Taipei is studying plans to preserve communications in the event of an attack from China, including satellites in medium and low Earth orbit for internet services, like Ukraine which uses the Starlink satellite broadband service of ‘Elon Musk.
China considers democratically governed Taiwan its own territory and has stepped up military activities around the island. The Taipei government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Speaking to reporters, Taiwan’s Minister of Technology and Science Wu Cheng-wen said the bandwidth of the existing OneWeb satellite service on the island was too low.
There are other Western companies that Taiwan could work with, including in Europe and Canada, he said, without giving names, although specifying that Amazon had the product most advanced in its development.
“Amazon’s Kuiper is the most advanced product in its development phase so far, which is why we are currently discussing the possibility of collaboration,” Wu added, without giving further details.
Amazon, which plans a network of more than 3,000 satellites to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan has also sent its own satellites into space using rockets fired by foreign companies, including Arianespace, a joint venture of Airbus and Safran.
But the island wants to be able to use its own rockets, and Wu said authorities are expected to make a decision by the end of March on the location of the launch pad, probably along the southeastern coast. where the army has missile firing ranges.
It will then take about five years for the site to be operational, he added.
