Amazon Kuiper Plans India Debut Next Year, Lags Peers

Kuiper is targeting satellite internet launch, trailing rivals Starlink, OneWeb and Jio Satellite

- Jatin Grover

Amazon's Project Kuiper, in the race to offer satellite internet service in India, is aiming for a launch next year, though it trails rivals Starlink, OneWeb and Jio Satellite, two people aware of the matter said.

The delay in India foray is because the Amazon arm is still to have a sufficient satellite constellation to launch the services commercially and secure necessary license and approval in the country, they said, requesting not to be identified.

The company is yet to get its network and ground system designs to comply with a set of security conditions laid out by the Indian government.

The firm is in discussion with the government on compliance and is expected to complete the formalities by this year-end, said the first of the two persons cited earlier.

This person added that like peers, Kuiper also has requested the government to allow serving other geographies with satellite systems or gateways installed in India.

Queries emailed to Kuiper did not elicit any response till press time.

The Centre has given a go-ahead to three operators—OneWeb, Jio-SES joint venture, and Elon Musk's Starlink—to launch satellite communication services in the country.