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A new survey from broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) has claimed that nearly half of Brits (45%) “prioritise getting their Wi-Fi set up” (they mean the internet connection) over anything else when moving into a newly purchased house. But 50% of respondents admit they aren’t sure where to place their router to ensure the best WiFi coverage.

Setting up broadband was found to beat other “priority” tasks, such as unpacking (3%), redirecting mail (4%) and buying furniture (1%). The survey also revealed that 55% of respondents didn’t know the difference between WiFi signal, WiFi strength and WiFi speed (we’re not sure if referencing “signal” and “strength” separately really helps). Finally, 71% found it confusing to know which package offers the best value for money with so many options available.

The news that getting broadband setup is a top priority for house movers won’t come as much of a surprise to readers of ISPreview. But we must stress that Virgin Media’s press release contains no details about the sample size or methodology of their survey, so the usual “take it with a pinch of salt” caveats apply.

In terms of router placement, we’d recommend a quick read of our Wi-Fi Tips Article from a few years ago, which is still largely relevant to today’s environment.

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SIM-Only UK mobile provider spusu, which holds a virtual operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s national 4G and 5G network, has today confirmed that they’ve finally resolved calling problems (here) on Google’s popular Pixel Smartphones by enabling Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) calling support.

Google’s Pixel phones have long developed somewhat of a reputation for calling related problems via Voice-over-LTE and also Wi-Fi Calling. But some of those were resolved in a firmware update issued in June 2024 (here).

However, in other cases, the issue often has more to do with a lack of VoLTE support by the network operator itself. In theory, when VoLTE isn’t working, the handset should still drop back to 2G, although for various reasons that doesn’t always happen. In other cases, those same calls can also end up being sent to voicemail instead of directly to the end-user.

The above situation was the case for spusu too, which until now didn’t list Google’s phones as being supported on their network. But the company has now established a relationship with Google, meaning owners of their popular Pixel phones, generation 7 and newer, can finally benefit from “seamless 4G calling“.

Christian Banhans, UK MD of spusu, told ISPreview:

“We’re committed to providing all customers with seamless connectivity. And enabling VoLTE for Google Pixel devices is part of that commitment.

Our collaboration with Google has allowed us to bring this crucial feature to Pixel users, ensuring seamless connectivity and greater functionality. Enabling VoLTE on Google Pixel devices is a big step forward in supporting our customers and future proofing our services. With this in mind, we aim to keep making improvements to our network and giving customers even more reasons to choose spusu throughout the year.”

Now.. how about Wi-Fi Calling too (here).

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A newspaper report has claimed that UK ISP Sky Broadband (Comcast) could have “tens of thousands” of customers on CityFibre’s alternative Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network as soon as May 2025. But the “full scale” roll-out is allegedly not expected to be completed until just a little later (H2 2025), and packages have yet to go live.

In case anybody has forgotten. Sky (Sky Broadband) currently only sells broadband packages via Openreach’s national network, which covers around 18 million UK premises for FTTP (many more if we factor FTTC/SOGEA). But this is due to change after last year’s announcement that CityFibre – an alternative FTTP network that covers 4.4m premises (4.2m RFS) – had signed a “long-term partnership” (wholesale) agreement with Sky (here).

The deal to secure support from one of the country’s largest three retail broadband providers is seen as being key in helping CityFibre to secure additional funding of around £1.5bn from investors (c. £500m as equity and £1bn as debt), which is something we’ve covered before (here). CityFibre already works with big names like Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen Internet and tens of other ISPs.

Sky Broadband’s customers should also benefit from gaining access to faster (symmetric) speeds and at lower prices in CityFibre areas, although Sky has yet to formally launch their products and prices. Nevertheless, the latest FT (paywall) report indicates that the commercial launch is getting very close, and our own industry sources suggest the same.

Officially, neither CityFibre nor Sky are ready to say anything beyond what was already said last year. But according to ISPreview’s sources, Sky Broadband is already fully enabled across CityFibre’s entire footprint and recently completed the software side development. We’ve also seen evidence of some staff trials, which appear to have recently completed.

Sky’s next task will be to test live customer journeys, which is where the FT’s mention of “tens of thousands” of customers probably comes from (it’ll be in the low tens of thousands). Sources suggest the process could start this month and continue into May, beginning with new provisions and moving into migrations (e.g. re-contracting users). But bulk migrations of users on existing Openreach lines is unlikely due to the need for an engineer visit to install new ONTs (optical modems) inside homes.

In theory this means that Sky Broadband could be ready to launch their first CityFibre based broadband packages by around June 2025. This is also roughly when we expect the network operator to complete its upgrade to 10Gbps capable XGS-PON full fibre technology (here). Good timing.

Sky are no doubt planning to officially launch all of this in the near future, although it’s not yet known if that will initially be a soft-launch or a live product launch on the same day. Either way, we’re looking forward to seeing how they’ll price their packages, what router they’ll bundle (it may need something better than the ‘Sky Max Hub‘ – pictured) and whether they do anything a bit different from other providers on the same network.

CityFibre currently still aspires to cover up to 8 million UK premises with their new full fibre network – representing c.30% of the UK. But their original target of hitting that by around 2025 will not be achieved, and the operator has instead indicated a desire to boost their growth via M&A (mergers and acquisition) of smaller alternative networks (here). They also hold ten state-aid funded Project Gigabit contracts, worth nearly £1bn.

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Alternative network operator and ISP Trooli (Call Flow) has revealed that they’re also planning to shut their “up to” 100Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) based broadband network in Kent, which currently still covers hundreds of premises across the villages of Stansted and parts of Fairseat.

The development comes only a week after ISPreview revealed that the operator was also in the process of closing one of their legacy hybrid wireless and fibre optic broadband networks in rural Hampshire (here). This was originally built in 2014-16 with support from £1.258m of public funding (Building Digital UK). But the situation in Kent is different.

Just to recap. Trooli is currently focused on deploying their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network (covering 410,000 premises) across towns and large semi-rural villages in parts of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, East Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Sussex and Wiltshire in England. As well as parts of North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Fife in Scotland (formerly part of Axione UK’s network).

However, in the past, Trooli (formerly better known as Call Flow Solutions) did also deploy a number of hybrid broadband networks into several rural communities using Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and sub-loop unbundled based Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technologies. In the case of Kent, we’re talking about the latter, which was built around early 2017 (here).

The Kent project, which as we recall covered the installation of three Sub Loop Unbundling (SLU) based Street Cabinets, formed part of Call Flow’s contract with the county council’s state aid fuelled Superfast Kent programme. Openreach (BT) sell SLU to ISPs, which gives providers access to a partial local loop and enables them to build their own FTTC cabinets. In this setup Openreach only remain responsible for the provision, maintenance and repair of the SLU circuit, while the cabinet and its services are controlled by the ISP.

The SLU approach was a bit of a middle-of-the-road solution and one that never really took off at scale, although a number of providers like Call Flow did deploy some small networks using the technology. The networks were typically focused on areas that had no plans for upgrades via any other solution.

However, this is now a problem for residents of Stansted and parts of Fairseat, which is because Trooli / Call Flow plan to close their FTTC network by the end of 2025, and they have no plans to replace it with their own FTTP infrastructure. This stems from Openreach and BT’s ongoing efforts to retire their legacy copper based phone (PSTN) and line rental (WLR) services,

A spokesperson for Trooli said (Kent Online):

“We have been in touch with a small number of customers whose broadband service is at threat from Openreach’s Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) switch-off.

These properties are part of a small group of Call Flow customers whose broadband uses an unusual type of connection which is reliant on Openreach’s copper network.

Whilst we have had no part in Openreach’s decision to switch off WLR, if it goes ahead as planned, it will no longer be possible for us to provide these properties with a broadband connection.

These customers were originally informed that their service would be switched off in May.

However, as the switch-off is not scheduled to take place until the end of the year, we have decided to use this time to continue our attempt to find an improved resolution with Openreach.

This postponement has been communicated to potentially impacted customers.

We will, of course, provide further updates to these customers and keep them updated on how our conversations with Openreach progress.”

Just to be clear, this doesn’t impact Openreach’s own national FTTC (VDSL2) network because the operator has invested to adapt it via SOGEA technologies for the modern digital age. In theory, Openreach could perhaps find a way to re-purpose the existing SLU cabinets into their own network, but that’s tricky and the operator has long since switched its focus to FTTP (i.e. FTTC solutions are on the way out and no longer being built).

A spokesperson for Openreach would only say that their “build plans are continually being updated“, before noting how “state-subsidised programmes like Project Gigabit are rolling out nationally“. But they currently have no clear plans for the two communities, which will push local homes and businesses back to ancient ADSL lines (these struggle to cope with the demands of the modern internet and many ISPs have already retired it).

In some areas it may be possible to get a viable mobile broadband (4G/5G) connection as an alternative, although rural performance is often a very mixed bag. At this point we’d normally suggest that another solution may come via Starlink’s (SpaceX) LEO satellite network. But the latter is an expensive proposition for many users and capacity issues mean that there’s currently a waitlist active in that area of the south east.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The CEO of network access provider Openreach, Clive Selley, has once again called on the government to help boost the UK roll-out of gigabit-capable broadband networks by making a number of key changes to several new bills. But gaining acceptance of these calls has proven difficult, particularly with a group of cross-party MPs campaigning for the opposite.

At present, Openreach’s growing Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network already covers around 18 million premises (there are around 32.5m across the United Kingdom) and they aim to reach 25 million by December 2026. The operator has also expressed an ambition to reach “up to” 30 million by 2030, which was given a boost last month after Ofcom’s latest Telecoms Market Review (TAR) showed it wasn’t going to upset the apple cart.

Despite this, Clive Selley has long been campaigning for the government to make more changes to help move things along, many of which are also supported by the wider industry (here, here and here). But there are differences of agreement on the detail between broadband operators, as nobody wants to hand Openreach and unfair advantage (e.g. the ability to upgrade MDUs that others cannot access in the same way).

The most common calls tend to echo a strong desire for the full embracement of flexi-permits to boost street works and a push for easier access to run new fibre into large residential buildings (MDUs), such as in cases where operators struggle to identify or communicate with the building owner(s). The latter impacts around a million UK tenants.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said (Mail on Sunday):

“We work in the streets, we work in the pavements and we work in the roads. So we ask for permission a third of a million times a year. Councils are under cost and staffing pressures, so this generates huge amounts of work.

Pushing [flexi-permits] through at pace wouldn’t just reduce workload, it would increase the pace at which we could build, and take the cost away from the councils. It’s a win-win with no taxpayer money involved.

…

In many of the apartment blocks in London, the owner’s address is a PO Box in the British Virgin Islands. So you write them a letter and will not hear back.”

The ability to deliver changes like this would require new legislation, which Openreach and others envisage as coming through tweaks to the new Renters’ Rights Bill (here) and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (here). But so far the first draft of both bills have largely appeared to exclude such calls, although future amendments may yet see them being debated over the coming months.

On top of that, Openreach’s push for change will meet opposition from MPs in different parties, although it’s not yet clear how much success they will have when or if such amendments come up for debate in parliament.

Mark Francois, Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, said:

“Openreach have a bloomin’ cheek. They have already had years to install fibre networks and should really have finished the job by now. Why should long-suffering motorists have to endure more frustrating delays because Openreach can’t get the job done efficiently in the first place?”

The above comment is interesting as most people with knowledge of such networks recognise that deploying optical fibre cables down almost every single street and lane in the UK was always going to take around a decade or more to complete, with payback on that also taking 10-15 years to realise. Hence why the government ultimately set the Project Gigabit goal for achieving nationwide (c.99%) coverage of gigabit-capable broadband as 2030.

Openreach only started (or re-started) large scale deployments of FTTP technology in 2018 and then took several years to ramp that up, but there’s a limit to how fast you can go on a commercial basis. On the other hand, it could be argued that the network operator’s effective abandonment of their original FTTP roll-out (here), which started in 2009/10 before stalling around 2012/13 for some years, does mean that they could have got here much faster if they really wanted.

However, it was also clear in 2012/13 that Openreach hadn’t got the right systems, processes or machinery necessary to conduct both a fast and truly economically efficient deployment. This took several years to correct. But it wasn’t until rivals, like CityFibre, really began posing a serious threat to their copper centric focus that all of this finally got resolved.

Time will tell whether network operators get their way in the new bills currently passing through parliament, although even without that we’d still expect the government’s core coverage goals to be largely achievable by the current target. But whether or not everybody (e.g. some MDU tenants) will be able to access that remains to be seen.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The national telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has finally granted Canadian company Kepler Communications a wireless telegraphy satellite earth station network licence for the operation of their new global network of CubeSats and larger sized broadband satellites. This will allow them to deploy their user terminals for a range of different services in the UK.

Traditional GEO Stationary Orbit (GSO) satellites are huge (size of a large bus) and struggle to deliver latency times of less than 600ms (milliseconds), which is largely because they orbit some 35,000km+ above Earth. All of this makes them very expensive to both build and launch (plus they take years to build), although a single one can serve hundreds of thousands – potentially millions – of users.

More recently, companies like SpaceX (Starlink), OneWeb (Eutelsat) and Amazon (Kuiper) have pioneered a new generation of more compact and somewhat disposable satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which provide ultrafast broadband (100Mbps+) speeds and fast latency times (c.20-40ms). But each of these can still weigh several hundred kilograms and are about the size of a fully grown man (much larger with solar sails unfolded).

By comparison, Kepler’s satellites are even smaller and typically conform to the CubeSat standard(s), often weighing only a few kilograms and being not much bigger than a human hand (this does vary as there are different classifications). Kepler has stated that its system is designed to support a range of connectivity services for the benefit of UK consumers and businesses, including store and forward based IoT (Internet of Things) and real-time data (broadband) transfer services when the network reaches full deployment.

The constellation will use inclined and sun-synchronous orbits to provide coverage over the whole of the UK. It will comprise 140 satellites operating at an altitude of 575km, and currently operates 20 satellites in 7 orbital planes. But Kepler does not currently plan or necessarily need to deploy gateways in the UK for this to work (and has not applied for any NGSO gateway licences in the UK).

Ofcom Statement

This decision will enable Kepler to provide satellite connectivity services (such as IoT and data transfer services) to business customers in the UK, using Ku band frequencies between 14.0-14.5 GHz.

On coexistence, we consider that Kepler’s NGSO system is capable of coexisting with both existing Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit (NGSO) licensees and future NGSO systems operating in the Ku band. Kepler has provided evidence that coordination discussions with other NGSO licensees are underway, and we encourage all parties to engage in these discussions and progress plans to cooperate.

We also consider that Kepler’s NGSO system is capable of coexisting with other services operating in the same (or adjacent) frequencies, including radio astronomy and geostationary orbit (GSO) satellite networks.

In addition, we assess that granting the licence will not create a material risk to competition, and that the proposed services would benefit UK customers, consumers, and citizens.

We will now proceed to issue Kepler with its new NGSO network licence to operate in Ku band frequencies 14-14.5 GHz, subject to payment of the licence fee. A copy of the licence will also be available under the “Existing licences” section of our NGSO licensing webpage.

Kepler’s plans are currently running years behind their original schedule, which envisaged the network’s full deployment of 140 satellites being operational by the end of 2022. But instead, they’ve only completed and launched around 20 of these (usually named ‘Kepler-1’ and onwards for GEN1).

In terms of performance, some early tests on a SAILOR 600 Ku 60cm marine stabilized antenna system showed download rates of 150Mbps and uploads of 130Mbps. This is of course bandwidth that must be shared between many users / IoT sensors on the ground, where individual connection speeds are more intended to be in the 1-40Mbps range.

However, Kepler’s existing constellation plan does include the goal of deploying 50 GEN2 (second generation) satellites, which will be much bigger (weighing over 100kg). The GEN2’s could deliver services to end-users other than IoT kit and have been designed for optical inter-satellite links and data relay services. The broadband speeds from these will be many times faster (more in Starlink GEN1 territory), but the final details remain unclear.

Ofcom’s network licence covers the use of all user terminals for a range of different potential services in the UK: fixed or static terminals (for home broadband services); land mobile (on trains or roads); or on aircraft and drones in UK airspace, and offshore platforms and ships in UK waters.

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Peterborough-based Rydal Group, which is a UK telecoms, broadband and managed IT provider, has today announced that they’ve acquired the IT services arm of Trisoft Limited, a Midlands-based technology provider. The move follows a recent acquisition spree, which most recently saw the group gobble phone and internet provider Merula.

The acquisition will see Trisoft’s IT team, supplier relationships and client base, transition to Rydal Group as part of its ongoing expansion across the UK. The Rydal Group now has offices in Peterborough, Lichfield, Lancaster, and a dedicated data centre and ISP operation in Huntingdon. With a 90+ strong team and ISO 9001, 27001 and 14001 certifications.

“This acquisition is about continuity and opportunity,” said Steffan Dancy, Managing Director at Rydal Group. “We’ve worked closely with Trisoft over the years and share the same customer-first values. Clients can expect the same trusted engineers and support, now enhanced by our broader infrastructure, national engineering network, and in-house cyber security division.”

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Avanti Communications, which is based in the UK and runs the HYLAS network of four large Ka-band communication satellites in high earth orbit (35,792km) for rural broadband and backhaul delivery across the EMEA, has this week opened a new technology HQ in the heart of Spaceport Cornwall’s Space Systems Operations Facility in Newquay.

The company, which was founded in 2002 and became the first commercial satellite operator to provide Ka-band services from Geostationary orbit, sees the new site as a complement to their existing (secondary) site at the Goonhilly Earth Station.

Kyle Whitehill, CEO of Avanti, said: “Our move to Spaceport Cornwall’s Space Systems Operations Facility reinforces our commitment to Cornwall’s growing space sector. This move enables us to collaborate more closely with the pioneering space and technology companies in SSOF and collectively contribute to the region’s growing reputation as a world-class space cluster.”

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

By: Anders Vestergren, Head of Solution Area Network Management at Ericsson

Delivering a “best effort” connection is no longer good enough for today’s mobile customer. Quality of connection, coverage and reliability are hotly demanded, and communication service providers are under pressure to step up, or face subscriber churn as users turn to a network they judge more likely to deliver what’s needed. When it comes to 5G, there’s growing network complexity involved in meeting those demands. However, a new digital glue is set to transform network operations in the coming year, explains Anders Vestergren, Head of Solution Area Network Management, Ericsson.  

Anders Vestergren, Head of Solution Area Network Management at Ericsson

The telecoms industry is caught between a digital rock and a theoretical hard place. There’s a growing need to innovate in ways that boost the development of new, lucrative services. However, network complexities that have arisen as a result of 5G advancement, as well as a lack of ‘killer apps’ to date, has created hesitancy across the market.  

There are also concerns that unstructured innovation could introduce additional layers or offshoots of proprietary technology, which is the last thing that CSPs want. Complexity is already a bar to launching new network products and services; the industry-at-large is therefore looking for ways to simplify and streamline operations as a necessary condition for revitalizing innovation. 

Currently, CSP are committing time and resources to managing the complexities of 5G advancement, while waiting for developers to unlock the innovation that will drive the next phase of 5G’s advancement – they risk being trapped in an endless cycle. They therefore need to find ways to shift their focus and resources from the intricacies of network management and become the innovation drivers themselves, or at least offer more tangible support to those who could make use of telecom networks capabilities to deliver that “killer app”.  

Fortunately, the emergence of radio access network (RAN) automation applications, also known as rApps, could break the logjam and spark the service innovation revolution.  

The digital glue  

rApps are designed to run on the Non-Real Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC) within a platform aligned with the O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network) framework for open network management and automation, known as SMO (Service Management and Orchestration). Combined, rApps and the platform have the ability to overcome a lack of continuity across the IT estate and act as the digital glue that joins a range of elements together in a coherent and streamlined unit, powered by automation.  

At a basic level, the Open RAN management and automation platform will join together different generations of radio (including Open RAN or Cloud RAN, and purpose built) to deliver unified management in one platform.  

rApps are also a catalyst for bringing together a range of parties within the wider technology community in an ecosystem with a clear objective. Last year, Ericsson introduced an rApp directory for commercially available rApps for use on the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), the company’s open network management and automation platform for open, multi-vendor and multi-technology networks, supporting all 4G and 5G Radio Access Networks (RAN). The ecosystem around that platform, built for developers and CSPs engaged with the EIAP, contains a software development toolkit and other supporting elements that can be used to develop new high-quality, high-value rApps that meet a CSP’s, or industry use case’, individual requirements. In addition, the directory provides ecosystem members the opportunity to showcase their rApp innovations and offerings, while potential users can discover new rApps, explore their functionality and connect with their owners. 

This combination of resources will enable CSPs to plug the power of the developer community into their business strategies, unlocking game-changing simplicity in automating RAN, and creating dynamic, efficient and responsive networks that are ready to deliver on demanding and specialised use cases. With rApps and their associated ecosystem, a window of opportunity has opened for CSPs to work alongside developers to drive 5G innovation forward.  

A delivery mechanism for AI  

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no stranger to telecoms but the additional levels of testing required by the sector, and specialized industry training required by the various models, has slowed down its widespread implementation. rApps, with defined purposes and objectives, delivered through the open network management platform already deployed on the network, can be seen as a way to implement AI-powered capabilities in a network without onerous integration and adaptations in the existing network set up – once more the digital glue in joining together key elements integral to the success of 5G networks.  

For example, AI-powered rApps currently available can help improve network performance by identifying suboptimal configurations in a RAN more effectively than previously possible. Unlike the earlier generation of tools or manual methods, an application can be written and deployed that doesn’t just compare cell performance to a set of pre-defined KPIs; it will constantly run network-wide pattern analyses and use AI to detect cells that are acting outside of the specification, revealing issues before they start causing degradation. This scale and speed is helping providers improve their networks in near real-time and monitor KPIs. 

Unlocking the future of telecom innovation  

Importantly, rApps enable CSPs to manage and optimise their networks at scale, handling the increasing complexity and diversity of network services and devices. They also facilitate the rapid deployment of new use cases and services, enabling telecom CSPs to innovate and gain a competitive edge. And finally, they can help reduce energy consumption by optimising network operations, contributing to more sustainable network management.  

Taken together, the functionalities supported by rApps will help unleash the full potential of 5G technology as well as opening the industry up to outside developers, who will help make it easier and more efficient for CSPs to better manage network complexity. The result: an across-the-board improvement of network performance for any vendor and any radio technology, providing a common and consistent level of service and customer experience – delivering efficiency gains for the CSP in the first place, and also ensuring these 5G networks are ready to act as a platform for innovative businesses to build monetizable services on.  

Revolutionising network management  

The traditional ways of managing networks, through static configuration planning and human-centric rollout, are no longer capable of delivering the required levels of performance. However, the auguries are good: a growing open ecosystem that supports innovation and the monetisation of new use cases is starting to emerge, with an industry-wide effort to create clean, usable telecom data that can power AI tools, and AI-powered rApps underpinning efficient network operations. 

What is clear is that intelligent automation will be required to manage complexity and meet growing customer expectations while optimising operating costs and capital expenditure. That’s where rApps deliver – these powerful tools enable telecom CSPs to enhance network management, reduce costs and improve the overall performance and sustainability of their networks. All of this can be unlocked by harnessing developer-led innovation.  

The hope of creating a more manageable and agile network, while dealing with the complexities inherent in the current model, is about to become a reality. 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

Project Kuiper is positioning itself in direct competition with SpaceX’s Starlink, which leads the market with the world’s largest active LEO satellite constellation of over 5,000 satellites 

Amazon has confirmed that it will launch the first satellites of its orbital broadband constellation, Project Kuiper, later this month. 

The mission, dubbed Kuiper Atlas 1 (KA-01), will see 27 satellites launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch is scheduled for no earlier than 9th April. 

This deployment is the start of full-scale production and deployment for Project Kuiper, which aims to provide high-speed, low-latency internet access to underserved regions worldwide. The company plans to deploy a total of over 3,200 LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites in its first constellation. 

Following the initial launch, satellites will deploy into a 280 km parking orbit before reaching their final orbital altitude of 630 km. Once in place, they will travel at over 17,000 mph, orbiting Earth roughly every 90 minutes.  

Amazon plans at least seven additional launches on the Atlas V, 38 launches via ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, and 30+ launches from other providers, including Arianespace, Blue Origin, and SpaceX. 

“We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper in a press release.  

“We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to prepare for this first mission, but there are some things you can only learn in flight, and this will be the first time we’ve flown our final satellite design and the first time we’ve deployed so many satellites at once. No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey, and we have all the pieces in place to learn and adapt as we prepare to launch again and again over the coming years.” 

The company says it expects to begin customer service rollout later this year. 

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Also in the news:
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