Ofcom likely to licence Kuiper

Ofcom says its ‘preliminary view’ is that it will licence Kuiper, Amazon’s satellite constellation, to deliver broadband connectivity and mobile telephony to UK residents.

‘This document sets out our initial assessment of Kuiper’s application for an NGSO network licence for its Kuiper system using Ka band frequencies between 27.5-27.8185 GHz, 28.4545-28.8265 GHz, and 29.5-30 GHz. Kuiper plans to provide satellite connectivity services to households, businesses and other potential customers in the UK,’ says Ofcom.

‘Our preliminary view is that we will grant an NGSO network licence to Kuiper, having considered the technical coexistence and competition impacts of its NGSO system on existing and future NGSO systems and other spectrum services operating in the same frequencies,’ adds Ofcom..

‘We invite comments on Kuiper’s application and our preliminary views, as set out in this consultation, by 4 October 2024. Details of Kuiper’s application can be found under the “Applications received” section of our NGSO licensing webpage’, continues Ofcom.

‘We will consider any responses to this consultation before reaching a final decision on whether to grant Kuiper an NGSO network licence to operate in Ka band frequencies 27.5-27.8185 GHz, 28.4545-28.8265 GHz, and 29.5-30 GHz,’ concludes Ofcom.

Amazon has approval to deploy and operate a constellation of 3,232 LEO satellites which will sit at an altitude of between 590km and 630km. The system can process up to 1Tbps of data traffic on each satellite.