Amazon and telecom company, Vrio, announced on Thursday that they would work together to jointly establish a satellite internet service in seven South American nations, putting them up against Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Vrio’s vice president, Darío Werthein confirmed the partnership in a statement.
With over 10.5 million users across ten countries and over 9,500 staff members, Vrio Corp bills itself as a prominent supplier of digital entertainment services in South America and the Caribbean.
Customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia will be able to access the service through Vrio, the U.S. company that oversees both Sky Brasil and DirecTV’s Latin American division.
Newsng gathered that 3,236 low Earth orbit satellites will be launched as part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which is being led by a former Starlink staffer, to provide dependable internet connection.
Based on World Bank projections, this service is intended to reach around 200 million individuals in South America who do not currently have access to the Internet or only have restricted access.
“Around 200 million people in the region have poor, little or no internet access,” Werthein said, citing World Bank estimates. “Add to that the geographical terrain, and, of course, a continent that has challenges in making large infrastructure investments.”
The launch plan for Project Kuiper states that the service will become live in Argentina in the middle of 2025.
According to Bruno Henriques, head of business development for the company in Latin America, Project Kuiper will present its strategy for launching 3,236 satellites in the sky in the upcoming months.
Amazon declared in 2019 that it would contribute $10 billion to the endeavour.
Newsng understands that This collaboration may spark a digital connectivity boom throughout South America.
We earlier reported that Amazon has announced a partnership with Orange Middle East & Africa (OMEA) to deliver AWS Wavelength to Morocco and Senegal as part of a strategic strategy to increase its cloud footprint in Africa.
