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| Facebook's Satellite Internet Team Joins Amazon |
Amazon has acquired a team of employees from Facebook to focus on providing Internet access from satellites in low Earth orbit.
As part of the acquisition, Amazon paid Facebook an undisclosed amount. In April, twelve employees from Los Angeles joined the company to work on Project Kuiper.
The move ended Facebook's efforts to provide internet connections to remote areas via its satellite.
When the company confirmed the plan in 2018, it believed the technology could provide broadband connectivity to rural areas without an internet connection.
Before the project was completed in 2018, Facebook had already tried to achieve similar goals with online drones.
At the same time, Amazon's ambition to provide satellite internet arose in 2019.
The company plans to invest $10 billion by 2029 to put 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit. Its goal is to bring the Internet to underserved and underserved communities around the world.
Last year, the company received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to operate the network. Half of the satellites will be launched by 2026.
Amazon is supposed to build a lab in Redmond and currently about 500 employees are involved in satellite internet projects.
Facebook shuts down satellite internet
Late last year, Amazon unveiled the design of the antenna its customers use to receive internet via satellite internet services.
However, the company has not launched any satellites into space. In April of this year, Amazon confirmed that it had signed a contract for nine launches with missile operator ULA. However, he did not give a timetable for the introduction.
Amazon is one of the few technology companies trying to use satellites to provide Internet connections in areas where the cost of installing fixed infrastructure is high.
Perhaps the most famous of these is SpaceX, which plans to put about 12,000 satellites into orbit. Starlink is now available as a beta for a limited number of users. Although the power of about 1,300 satellites in orbit has not yet been established.
OneWeb is also investing in this area. But last year she faced financial difficulties when she had to file for bankruptcy.