Amazon might initiate steps soon for bringing high-speed satellite network services to India, people known with the matter said, in a move that is sure to spark off the rivalry with arch-rivals Bharti-backed One-Web and Elon Musk’s SpaceX and drive down expensive satellite broadband costs.
The global e-commerce founded by Jeff Bezos will approach the government to talk about permits, modalities, authorisations,landing rights and satellite bandwidth leasing costs. The Department of Space (DoS) gives landing rights for linking down signals of foreign satellites in India.
Amazon is investing about $10 billion to create a constellation of 3,236 low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites as a part of its global space internet initiative, Project Kuiper. It has yet to disclose India plans . “Talks with the DoS and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will happen on the necessary regulatory approvals to bring Amazon’s high-speed broadband services to India via its Project Kuiper satellite constellation as part of the global launch,” a person stated.
“As LEO satellite technology rapidly gains global scale and bandwidth leasing costs head down, it would make strong business sense for Amazon to quickly make inroads into India’s emerging satellite broadband market to effectively compete with OneWeb and SpaceX,” Rohan Dhamija, partner and head, India & Middle East at technology, media and telecom consultancy Analysys Mason stated in an article published by Economic Times.
OneWeb and SpaceX announced big India plans already that could give them a big first-mover benifit in a key telecom market, he added.