Amazon’s Project Kuiper and NTT/SKY Perfect JSAT Form Strategic Collaboration to Bring Advanced Satellite Connectivity Options to Japan

November 27, 2023

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), NTT DOCOMO, Inc. (NTT DOCOMO), NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) have formed a strategic collaboration with Project Kuiper, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband network from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), to bring advanced, reliable, and far-reaching satellite connectivity options to customers in Japan. The companies expect to use Project Kuiper LEO satellite connectivity services to enhance communications availability and resiliency for Japanese customers.

As part of this collaboration, NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT plan to distribute Project Kuiper connectivity services to enterprises and government organizations in Japan, while NTT Group companies become customers of Project Kuiper. The companies plan to use Project Kuiper to provide their customers with new connectivity options to build out resilient, redundant communications networks.

Although Japan is well served by terrestrial communications technology like fiber and wireless, the country’s mountainous terrain and many islands makes it challenging to restore connectivity in the event of natural disasters and other emergencies. Project Kuiper provides a rapid, scalable solution to that challenge. For instance, 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 the time and expense required to build out fiber and fixed wireless infrastructure.

As a result of this collaboration, Japanese businesses will be able to use Project Kuiper connectivity to support a broad range of applications, including internet of things, 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.

Moving forward, Project Kuiper, NTT, SKY Perfect JSAT, and the other companies will explore a broader 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.

“Improving connectivity infrastructure will become even more important in the future to help solve various issues facing society and to establish sustainable economic and social activities,” said Katsuhiko Kawazoe, senior executive vice president of NTT. “We look forward to accelerating innovation and achieving a future in which we deliver further value in cooperation with Project Kuiper, bringing together the respective technologies and resources of each company, such as NTT’s IOWN technology.”

“Our philosophy at NTT DOCOMO is to prioritize our customers and satisfy them with personalized communications solutions and unparalleled customer support, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper shares those priorities,” said Hozumi Tamura, executive vice president of NTT DOCOMO. “In Japan, where we are fortunate to offer such robust communications services, Project Kuiper can help us take customer satisfaction to a new level by providing even more options for powering innovation and helping our customers communicate wherever and whenever they like.”

“Japan has a long history of innovation and an insatiable demand for connectivity,” said Toru Fukuoka, representative director, senior executive vice president of SKY Perfect JSAT. “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.”

“NTT, SKY Perfect JSAT, Project Kuiper, and the NTT Group companies share the mission of keeping customers connected no matter what situations arise and helping them continue to innovate by harnessing data from virtually anywhere,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology and head of Project Kuiper. “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.”

“AWS and NTT Group have a proven track record of innovating for our customers, and we’re excited to expand what is possible with Project Kuiper,” said Tadao Nagasaki, president of AWS Japan. “The introduction of Project Kuiper connectivity services will give our customers new options for connecting remote locations and using the world’s leading secure, resilient, and flexible cloud provider to transform their operations.”

Project Kuiper recently achieved a 100% success rate for its prototype satellite test mission, validating the key technologies that make up its satellites and network. Project Kuiper expects to begin beta testing connectivity services with select customers and partners in the second half of 2024. NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT plan to take part in that testing as part of this collaboration.