Ofcom Grants License For Amazon Kuiper To Challenge Starlink In UK

The satellite broadband race continues to ramp up this week, after the British communications regulator granted a licence to a potential rival of Elon Musk’s Starlink service.

Ofcom announced it has “granted an earth station network licence to Amazon Kuiper Services Europe SARL for its non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite system, which is also known as ‘Kuiper’”.

It comes after Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket last month had safely reached its intended orbit. The 320-foot rocket stands 30 stories tall and is partially reusable.

Project Kuiper

The New Glenn rocket is Blue Origin’s answer to SpaceX’s heavy payload carrier rocket, Falcon 9.

New Glenn and other rockets (from the likes of Arianespace, United Launch Alliance, and even SpaceX) will be used to help build Project Kuiper.

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s long-touted broadband internet satellite constellation, that will eventually rival the Starlink network.

Project Kuiper‘s initial satellite constellation design includes 3,232 satellites in earth low orbit.

So far there are only two test Project Kuiper satellites (known as Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2) in orbit, so the Kuiper satellite constellation has to still be built before the service can finally rival Starlink, which at the end of January 2025 had 6,957 working satellites in orbit.

There is also another rival to Starlink and Project Kuiper, namely British satellite internet firm OneWeb, which had merged Paris-based Eutelsat in 2022.

Ofcom licence

Despite having just two satellites currently, things are moving forward for Project Kuiper after the UK’s Ofcom granted it network licence.

This decision means Kuiper will be authorised to provide satellite connectivity services such as high speed, low latency broadband to customers in the UK – who are typically located in rural or remote locations where there may not be any other broadband connectivity options.

Ofcom said Kuiper is permitted to operate in Ka band frequencies between 27.5-27.9405 GHz, 28.4545-28.9485 GHz, and 29.5-30 GHz.

Separately, Ofcom has also today announced it is releasing further radio spectrum in the 27.5-30 GHz (28 GHz) and 32 GHz bands.

“In line with our mission to support innovation, investment and growth, today’s decisions provide further opportunity for new services delivering better connectivity for people and businesses in the UK – and particularly to those in harder to reach rural communities,” said Nina Percival, Director of Spectrum Management and Authorisation.

Amazon in October 2022 expanded its Project Kuiper manufacturing capability, with the development of a dedicated, 172,000-square-foot satellite production facility in Kirkland, Washington.