Jeff Bezos is gearing up to launch Amazon’s satellite broadband service in Britain, marking a significant challenge to fellow billionaire Elon Musk.
Regulatory filings show Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to beam internet connectivity from space to UK customers—including businesses and government users—as early as this year, signalling intensifying competition in the nascent but increasingly crowded satellite internet market.
Project Kuiper’s “uniquely suited” network could bridge the digital divide in hard-to-reach areas across the country, the company told Ofcom. Under Amazon’s plan, internet traffic will travel from satellites to ground-based dishes outside homes. To support such operations, the tech giant is exploring building “gateways” that link Kuiper satellites to the wider internet.
Beyond consumer and commercial offerings, Amazon is also eyeing British defence contracts. Transparency filings reveal that executives met with Air Marshall Paul Godfrey—then leading the UK’s Space Command—to discuss Amazon’s network study for the military. Separate meetings with Blue Origin, Bezos’s rocket company, underscore a parallel push to compete with Musk’s SpaceX, currently the dominant private player in orbital launches.
Blue Origin’s new 320ft New Glenn rocket, which has its inaugural flight lined up early on Monday morning, is designed for reusability and is set to carry dozens of Amazon’s satellites. Facing delays, Project Kuiper is aiming for its first full-scale launches in early 2025, with wider commercial service by the end of that year. Analysts caution it might be 2026 or beyond before widespread services become available.
The entry of Project Kuiper pits two of the world’s wealthiest individuals against one another, with Musk’s Starlink network already serving 87,000 UK customers and reportedly four million globally. While Amazon seeks to gain a foothold in both commercial and government markets, it must still address regulatory hurdles and demonstrate it can meet demand in an increasingly competitive space. The UK government, which partly owns another rival, OneWeb, is watching developments closely, especially as rising defence and commercial interest in satellite services gathers pace.
