A Kuiper user terminal. Photo: Amazon

Some of the biggest names in Japanese communications will team up with Amazon to use its Project Kuiper Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity services. NTT, NTT DOCOMO, NTT Com, and SKY Perfect JSAT have formed a strategic collaboration with Project Kuiper, the LEO satellite broadband network to bring satellite connectivity options to customers in Japan. The strategic collaboration was announced Nov. 27.

NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT plan to distribute Project Kuiper connectivity services to enterprises and government organizations in Japan, while NTT Group companies will become customers of Project Kuiper. The companies plan to use Project Kuiper to provide their customers with new connectivity options to build out redundant communications networks. NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s leading mobile network provider, plans to use Project Kuiper to connect rural and hard to reach parts of Japan back to its core telecom network without building out fiber and fixed wireless infrastructure.

Japanese businesses will be able to use Project Kuiper connectivity to support a broad range of applications, including IoT, predictive maintenance, fleet management, remote manufacturing, and more. Customers will also be able to use Project Kuiper to connect to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run advanced technologies such as machine learning and AI.

“Japan has a long history of innovation and an insatiable demand for connectivity. The existing partnership between SKY Perfect JSAT and NTT has brought Japanese businesses more opportunities to create and grow, and the addition of Project Kuiper into our family of services is a very exciting development that accelerates further business innovation and technical development in Japan,” Toru Fukuoka, representative director, senior executive vice president of SKY Perfect JSAT, said in a statement.

Project Kuiper, NTT, SKY Perfect JSAT, and the other companies will explore a range of collaborations related to seamless communication between Earth and space to help Japanese businesses innovate. The goal is to create new services to help customers make more sustainable use of their resources and give consumers improved options for healthcare, financial services, entertainment, and more.

Amazon is moving forward with its Kuiper network, and the company recently validated all systems and subsystems on board the first two Kuiper prototype satellites, demonstrating the first two-way video call over Amazon’s end-to-end communications network.

“NTT is a trusted communications services provider in Japan and an ideal partner for Project Kuiper as we prepare to offer reliable, secure LEO broadband services in the country,” commented Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology and head of Project Kuiper.