Taiwan reportedly in talks with Amazon for satellite internet services via Kuiper

A Taiwanese government official on Tuesday told multiple media outlet reporters that it is in talks with e-commerce and tech giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) about using its Project Kuiper satellite internet service to help the island nation preserve communications if it were attacked by China, similar to Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s Starlink service.

Wu Cheng-wen, the country’s technology minister, said Taiwan is considering doing deals with several companies, but that Amazon’s product was the most developed.

“Amazon Kuiper is the most mature in their development stage so far, so we are discussing at this moment whether it’s possible to have a collaboration,” Wu told a group of reporters. He said the bandwidth for the island’s existing OneWeb satellite service was too small.

According to a Financial Times report, officials in Taiwan don’t see Starlink as an option due in part to Elon Musk’s business interests in China.

Amazon has plans for a network of more than 3,000 satellites and will launch its first non-prototype Kuiper satellites and begin commercial service next year. It is expected to spend more than $10B on the project.