Amazon officially counts with the 30-year concession to provide satellite internet in Chile, Jeff Bezos' company will now be able to build its first operating base through its Kuiper System division.
"Amazon and Starlink are authorized to operate in our country, connectivity that will be in addition to that obtained through TV White Spaces."
In Chile, it will debut in the San Pedro commune, near the so-called Fruit Highway, and in total it plans to launch 3,236 satellites by 2029, a project in which it has experts and developments from Facebook, including physicists, optical and mechanical engineers, as well as workers focused on the creation of prototypes and software who have worked on aeronautical systems and wireless networks.
Amazon's subsidiary intends to launch its satellite internet service in Chile when it has 578 satellites in orbit.
The Kuiper System roadmap states that 784 satellites will be located at an altitude of 590 kilometers, 1,296 satellites will be located at 610 kilometers, while 1,156 satellites will be located in an orbit of 630 kilometers, whose satellite network will cover a latitude of 56 degrees North to 56 degrees South, where 95% of the Earth's population is concentrated.
Elon Musk's satellite internet in Chile
This announcement comes on top of the fact that Starlink, the firm owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk already developed tests in regions and that in Santiago its satellite internet in Chile is expected to be operational by the end of the year, connections will be made on a first-come, first-served basis at a current estimated cost of 93 thousand pesos per month, in addition to a one-time payment of 562 thousand pesos for the equipment kit and shipping costs. Amazon's direct competitor seeks to put 42 thousand satellites into orbit.
Francisco Moreno, Undersecretary of Telecommunications, told Diario Financiero that "SUBTEL has been involved in a series of projects that seek to bring connectivity to the most remote and extreme corners of our country, using a wide range of technologies that are adapted to the different geographic realities of Chile".
In this sense, he emphasized that the "deployment of low orbit satellite technology will benefit connectivity in these areas. We have already started pilots with Starlink in the towns of Sotomó and Caleta Sierra".
"A concession for data transmission services was recently granted to the Amazon company to develop its project called Kuiper. High-speed networks through satellites that are up to 60 times closer to the earth than conventional ones," he added.
Pilot program to implement White Spaces TV in Chile
The Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel), Compromiso País and Microsoft led the implementation of the first pilot program digital connectivity using TV White Spaces technology.
The Mapuche community of José Painecura, in the commune of Carahue (Araucanía Region) was chosen to carry out a pilot connection program that "illuminated" 120 families, two schools, two rural health posts and a meteorological station using technology that takes advantage of the radioelectric spectrum of open television to transmit high-speed wireless Internet.
The use of White Spaces TV in Chile solves connection problems in the most isolated areas of the country, with the characteristic of low cost, by using frequencies that travel longer distances, do not require line of sight and better penetrate the mountains and other physical obstacles.
We have great expectations that this new technology, which takes advantage of the open television radioelectric spectrum to transmit high-speed wireless Internet, will consolidate and add to the multiple alternatives that we have promoted as a government with the objective of bringing quality and high-speed Internet to the most remote places in our territory". This project will be consolidated and will be added to the multiple alternatives that we have promoted as a government with the objective of bringing quality and high speed Internet to the most remote places of our territory", said the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Francisco Moreno to the press.
The universe that is open to the José Painecura community is related to expedited access to digital procedures and information in areas such as services, labor market, education and culture.
The initiative is part of the global Microsoft Airband program, which stipulates collaboration with governments and citizens in the implementation of solutions that bring Internet to remote areas through TV White Spaces technology.
