Amazon ramps up India hiring for cheaper internet service

NEW DELHI: As Elon Musk-run SpaceX abandoned its affordable internet project Starlink in India, Amazon has ramped up its efforts to launch its fast and cheaper internet service called ‘Project Kuiper’ in the country.

The company has posted several job openings for Project Kuiper in the country. One job posting in Bengaluru seeks to hire a manager to “execute and handle the project’s licensing strategy in India and Asia-Pacific”.

The other job opening is for Business Strategy Lead, Country Development, Project Kuiper in Haryana (Gurugram).

“We are looking for a talented Business Development Strategy Lead who is ready to take charge of operational planning and support our strategy for our business plans in India,” the job posting read. Project Kuiper is an initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

The company said the “Kuiper Country

Development team is focused on launching and operating the Kuiper service across the globe”.

“A successful candidate will be both entrepreneurial and highly analytical, able to work extremely effectively in a matrix organization and adept at understanding how businesses work in India and how to create innovative, cutting edge solutions for our customers,” Amazon said.

Musk’s Starlink is currently available in more than 32 countries.

Like Musk’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper aims to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband to a wide range of customers, including individual households, schools, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, disaster relief operations, mobile operators, and other organisations working in places without reliable internet connectivity.

There are now more than 1,000 people at Amazon working on Project Kuiper. Amazon said it will invest over $10 billion in its satellite internet network.

Starlink has already launched more than 2,000 satellites since 2019, and many more will go up in the near future.