Dubbed Project Kuiper, the initiative aims to build and launch a constellation of 3,236 of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide reliable, affordable broadband service to unserved and underserved communities around the world.
The problem with a US owned and operated network is the US CLOUD Act which invades the privacy of citizens around the work. This will be applicable for Elon Musk’s Starlink system too. It makes it no better than the allegations against Chinese owned networks as far as privacy goes. The country where a service is operating makes zero difference to either the Chinese or US. You would need to subscribe and make use of these satellite services though before you are subject to the scrutiny via the US CLOUD Act, but nevertheless there are no other options right now if you do not have any other Internet service.
We’ve already had a taste in the US Anti-Trust hearings about what Amazon has been up to commercially with their e-commerce platform so don’t expect anything different from their satellite network… This way they will get the underserved communities connected and able to buy products online, and to see where else they are buying products… It will be worth it for them to make this completely free for consumers.
See Amazon gets approval for Internet-beaming satellites
#technology #ISP #privacy
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Amazon’s plans to launch Internet-beaming satellites into Earth’s orbit.