Vrio, a división of Argentina’s Grupo Werthein, has announced it has closed an agreement for the commercialization of Amazon’s satellite Internet service, Project Kuiper, in South America. As a result, Vrio’s operations DirecTV in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, as well as Sky in Brazil, will be selling the above-mentioned service. In this way, Vrio’s telecommunications services portfolio, currently offering Satellite TV, streaming Pay TV and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Internet, will go on growing.
The initiative was preannounced by Vrio President Darío Werthein in April 2023. In response to TAVI Latam’s questions, Vrio External and Regulatory Affairs Manager Marcos Anzorreguy explained that “the idea” was “to launch it at a regional level” and that the service was intended “as a supplement” to the fiber-optic service.
On a global scale, Project Kuiper’s constellation will consist of over 3000 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. The commercial launch of the Internet service is scheduled for 2025. According to information provided by the companies, “Project Kuiper has recently tested two prototype satellites as part of its successful Protoflight mission. Deployment of the satellite constellation will start in the coming months and service beta testing with Vrio and other select customers will begin later this year.”
As reported by Vrio in a press release, the system will provide high-speed, low-latency broadband. The release includes the following explanation: “Project Kuiper will make it possible for companies to offer nationwide coverage in every country, which is by no means feasible with traditional connectivity options such as fiber optic and fixed wireless, owing to the cost of the extensive infrastructure they require.”
Vrio’s press release also states: “This agreement will bring new affordable, high-speed Internet connectivity options to an area with a total population of approximately 383 million people, including 200 million the World Bank estimates are still not connected to the Internet.”
