New Delhi: Jeff Bezos-led Project Kuiper may enter India's lucrative satellite internet market hot on the heels of Elon Musk's Starlink, having recently approached the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for swift approval of its application.
Like Starlink, Kuiper plans to have massive satcom capacity in India. The Amazon-backed major plans to set up 10 gateways and two points of presence in Mumbai and Chennai, multiple people aware of the details told ET.
"The company wrote to DoT recently, requesting to expedite issuance of a letter of intent (LoI) for a satcom (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) permit," one of the persons said.
The letter was written before the DoT last week issued an LoI to Starlink, he added.
Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio-SES JV had already got the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) permit as well as clearances from space regulator Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe). Apple's satcom partner Globalstar has also applied to IN-SPACe for clearances to offer services in India.
"Amazon applied to DoT nearly two years back and, as the company has commenced commercial launch of satellites, it wants to secure all approvals before it starts offering commercial services later this year," a second person cited above said.
Last month, Kuiper had deployed 27 satellites in space and more launches are planned in coming months. It plans to have a low earth orbit (LEO) constellation of over 3,200 satellites with most of them likely to be deployed by February-March next year.
The timelines may, however, vary as the first scheduled commercial launch got delayed by a few months, according to experts.
An ET query to Amazon regarding its request for expeditious approval remained unanswered at press time Wednesday.
Experts said capacities generated by Kuiper and Starlink-which already has over 7,000 LEO satellites in space-would by far be the highest among competitors. In contrast, Eutelsat OneWeb has 648 LEO satellites and the Jio-SES combine will have around 11 medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites.
Starlink plans to have three gateways in India compared to Kuiper's 10, while Eutelsat-OneWeb and Jio-SES have two gateways each.
So, the majority of capacity that can be generated and used in India will come from the two US majors.
Currently, non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites in India have a total bandwidth capacity of about 70 gigabits per second (Gbps) while that of geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites is lower at about 58 Gbps. But once the LEO constellations are operational, the capacity will skyrocket to a few terabytes.
Like Starlink, Kuiper plans to have massive satcom capacity in India. The Amazon-backed major plans to set up 10 gateways and two points of presence in Mumbai and Chennai, multiple people aware of the details told ET.
"The company wrote to DoT recently, requesting to expedite issuance of a letter of intent (LoI) for a satcom (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) permit," one of the persons said.
The letter was written before the DoT last week issued an LoI to Starlink, he added.
Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio-SES JV had already got the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) permit as well as clearances from space regulator Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe). Apple's satcom partner Globalstar has also applied to IN-SPACe for clearances to offer services in India.
"Amazon applied to DoT nearly two years back and, as the company has commenced commercial launch of satellites, it wants to secure all approvals before it starts offering commercial services later this year," a second person cited above said.
Last month, Kuiper had deployed 27 satellites in space and more launches are planned in coming months. It plans to have a low earth orbit (LEO) constellation of over 3,200 satellites with most of them likely to be deployed by February-March next year.
The timelines may, however, vary as the first scheduled commercial launch got delayed by a few months, according to experts.
An ET query to Amazon regarding its request for expeditious approval remained unanswered at press time Wednesday.
Experts said capacities generated by Kuiper and Starlink-which already has over 7,000 LEO satellites in space-would by far be the highest among competitors. In contrast, Eutelsat OneWeb has 648 LEO satellites and the Jio-SES combine will have around 11 medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites.
Starlink plans to have three gateways in India compared to Kuiper's 10, while Eutelsat-OneWeb and Jio-SES have two gateways each.
So, the majority of capacity that can be generated and used in India will come from the two US majors.
Currently, non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites in India have a total bandwidth capacity of about 70 gigabits per second (Gbps) while that of geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites is lower at about 58 Gbps. But once the LEO constellations are operational, the capacity will skyrocket to a few terabytes.
( Originally published on May 14, 2025 )
