Our Bureau
New Delhi
After Elon Musk’s Starlink, Project Kuiper, Amazon’s major satellite plan has decided to enter the Indian market. Once the Project Kuiper enters the Indian internet market it will be the second largest satellite internet provider in the country behind the current leaders Starlink who has around 6000 satellites. Amazon has planned to launch around 3200 Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These satellites will be in a 2000-kilometer radius of the Earth which will help them provide a high-speed internet from space.
To operate in India, Kuiper will need a Letter of Intent (LOI) which will most likely be issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT). Once Amazon gets the approval it will move forward to get a GMPCS licence (Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite). This license is a must to provide satellite-based internet in India.
A source stated, “Amazon is closely studying the Indian market and plans to offer low-cost satellite internet, especially for rural and remote areas. The company is developing compact, affordable satcom devices and may even offer them for free or at discounted rates during the trial phase.”
This strategy of Amazon can be closely compared to what Jio has done previously when it was launching in the telecommunication sector. Both Starlink and Kuiper will be following Jio fiber’s formula of doing a few trials runs in the country first. This will help them in figuring out the Indian markets and devise a more lucrative deal to succeed.
The Indian companies like OneWeb which is backed by Bharti Airtel and Jio’s Jio-SES have been granted the GMPCS licenses by the government. But Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper are yet to receive their clearances and still await their final permits from the Department of Telecommunications and IN-SPACe — the single-window space regulator under India’s Department of Space. Starlink has received its Letter of Intent and if Kuiper receives it too it will become the second international satellite-based internet provider in India.
