Mint Quick Edit | Can Bezos’s Blue Origin do what Amazon’s Kuiper couldn’t—take on Musk’s Starlink?
Elon Musk’s Starlink rules the global satcom market, but Jeff Bezos wants to deploy his rocket company Blue Origin to compete with it. Amazon’s Kuiper couldn’t keep up. Let’s hope Blue Origin does—for the sake of competition.
So far, the global satellite internet market has been dominated by Elon Musk’s Starlink, an arm of SpaceX. Its main rival, Eutelsat’s OneWeb, has been trailing far behind, as has Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
But Amazon founder Jeff Bezos looks set to surround the planet with satellites run by his rocket business, Blue Origin, whose TeraWave network plans to put 5,400 orbiters in orbit to offer internet services across the globe.
This number won’t match Starlink’s coverage, but it expects to set itself apart on speed. It aims to deliver data download and upload speeds as high as 6 terabits per second, aimed at enterprise, data centre and government customers.
Project Kuiper, though, hasn’t given up its ambition of placing 3,000 satellites in orbit. Greater rivalry is good for this market even if two players have the same backer.
Satcom services are useful for battle coordination; Starlink’s role in the Ukraine war hasn’t gone unnoticed. Recently, Iranian rebels found succour in the same network amid Iran’s internet shutdown. Satellite links are highly valuable in places where terrestrial net infrastructure can let users down. This makes it all the more important that no player dominates this market.
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