Amazon’s Project Kuiper expects to start service demonstrations with Vrio and others later this year
Satellite TV operator Vrio has announced that it plans to use Amazon’s Project Kuiper Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide broadband internet service across seven countries in South America.
Those countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.
Vrio is the parent company of DirecTV Latin America as well as Sky Brasil. It officially announced a distribution agreement with Amazon this week and said that the Kuiper-backed internet service will serve an area with a population of about 383 million. The company cited World Bank estimates that within that population, there are 200 million people who do not have internet service.
“Project Kuiper is a powerful opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services. “There are hundreds of millions of households around the world that don’t have access to reliable broadband internet, which means they can’t take part in things that we can take for granted, like being able to learn online, run a business online, shop, or enjoy streaming entertainment. Working with Vrio to bring affordable access to broadband means we can enable so many more people to create, connect, and learn in new ways.” In a blog post, Project Kuiper said that members of its team had visited communities in South America and spoken to potential customers about how they would use internet service, with education, economic opportunity, access to healthcare and government services all being cited as ways that they would benefit from having high-speed internet access.
National coverage will be offered in each of the seven countries, the two companies said, adding that such an endeavor would “not [be] practical with traditional connectivity options like fiber optics or fixed wireless that require extensive infrastructure.” Project Kuiper said in an update in late May that it is in the process of de-orbiting two test satellites. The company plans to start deploying its satellite constellation for commercial service in the coming months and begin service demonstrations with Vrio and other customers later this year.
“Project Kuiper’s mission is to deliver fast, affordable broadband to areas that have traditionally been difficult to reach,” said Rajeev Badyal, VP of technology and head of Project Kuiper at Amazon. “Our network has the capacity and flexibility to serve tens of millions of customers around the world, and this distribution agreement with Vrio is part of our commitment to working with regional providers who share that vision. We look forward to working with Vrio to serve customers across South America.”
