Amazon vs. SpaceX in the Kuiper Satellite Internet Network

• Amazon has already won the Cloud and E-commerce space. Could it also win the future of Internet access?
• FCC declared in late July 2020 that Amazon may build its ambitious satellite internet system. It is a $10 Billion project of more than 3,000 satellites that would compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network.
• Kuiper vs. Starlink network, are you ready?

What is Amazon’s Kuiper Satellite Internet Network Project?

This was once an idea that Facebook was supposed to manifest. They didn’t. What is Kuiper? It’s a revolution. Amazon’s project, Kuiper, would see the company launch 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit.

Amazon has a deep lead in the Cloud with AWS. It is catching up in digital advertising and has a lead in the smart speaker consumer-AI realm of the smart home vs. Google and Baidu. Amazon improving in logistics and internet penetration is just a matter of time.

Amazon managed to trounce the opposition of its competitors and win US Federal Communications Commission approval to deploy Kuiper in space. And it really does pit Bezos vs. Musk in a whole new light. Long live American duopolies.

America’s binary system does make a mockery of democracy and free-market capitalism. But what can we say? It’s a dual super power world with the emergence of China now.

After the FCC announced the authorization, Amazon said that it “will invest more than $10 billion” into Kuiper. $10 Billion for Amazon is not as much as you might think. Amazon is the best company in the world when re-investing profits to grow.

Amazon’s global penetration in Europe, India and Japan is improving. Bringing Internet access to emerging markets in India, Africa and elsewhere will be huge for its ability to scale growth in the next decade.

• Amazon says it will deploy the satellites in five phases, with broadband service beginning once it has 578 satellites in orbit.
• However it is not a first mover here by any stretch of the imagination. SpaceX’s Starlink project appears to be years ahead of Amazon’s Kuiper, having already launched hundreds of satellites and started a beta test program for consumers.
• This also helps Amazon stay ahead in the Cloud. Amazon’s Kuiper includes plans to provide backhaul service to carriers in addition to direct consumer service.

The end game of Amazon has always been about the space race and the fate of BlueOrigin, the SpaceX competitor of Jeff Bezos. The legacy of Jeff Bezos might certainly find its way to Mars, and he needs Kuiper and BlueOrigin to scale along with SpaceX to allow the U.S. to maintain some kind of a preliminary lead vs. China. When the 2030s roll around, that will become increasingly difficult to do.

Asimov is in the blood of Musk and Bezos, and the fate of humanity could literally depend on how well they leverage their business ideas into the future.