Amazon is unveiling its antennas to take advantage of its upcoming Project Kuiper, antennas that look like little tables.
Amazon has lifted the curtain on the first generation of antennas for its Project Kuiper project. These accessories, which allow you to communicate with the American giant’s satellites in low Earth orbit, look like furniture. The largest one is 50 x 75 cm. This template is intended for companies, governments and other telecommunications organizations. Amazon explains that speeds can reach 1 Gb / s.
Amazon unveils its antennas to take advantage of its upcoming Kuiper project
The standard terminal for individuals is more compact, it is a square of 28 x 28 cm, with a thickness of 2.54 cm. Without a leg, it weighs less than 2.25 kg. According to Amazon, this antenna allows you to enjoy a maximum speed of 400Mbps.
The American company did not disclose prices for these terminals, but said it could produce a standard model for a public price of less than $400 per unit. Interesting price positioning when you know SpaceX’s Starlink is asking $599 for its own. This will be a more compact and even more affordable device, an 18 x 18 cm antenna for 450 grams on the scales and a maximum throughput of 100 Mbps.
Antennas that look like small tables
Amazon has developed its own chip for its antennas. The chip, codenamed Prometheus, he says has “the computing power of a modern 5G chip used in today’s smartphones, the capabilities of a cellular base station to handle the traffic of thousands of simultaneous clients, and the capabilities of a microwave backhaul antenna to support point-to-point communications.”point connections. The same chip is already used in Project Kuiper satellites and terrestrial relay antennas. Amazon explains that this chip will allow each satellite to handle traffic reaching terabits per second.
The Kuiper project is to deploy two prototype satellites with the first flight of the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. This launch is currently scheduled for May. Amazon plans to begin mass production of its satellites before the end of this year and launch them in the first half of 2024. The Project Kuiper satellite service is expected to be offered to first customers sometime next year. A few weeks ago, Amazon received approval from the FCC to launch several thousand satellites into low Earth orbit.