Taiwan in talks to tap Amazon's Project Kuiper space broadband

Taiwan has started talks with Amazon regarding access to its Kuiper satellite broadband service.

Cheng-Wen Wu, the minister responsible for Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council, on Tuesday reportedly told local media Kuiper is the most mature service of its sort, so he's discussing possible collaboration.

That's an odd opinion given Kuiper is not currently operational, while two other space broadband outfits do offer service.

SpaceX's Starlink is one of them, but is not available in Taiwan – the space ISP won't agree to regulators' requirement that it operate through a company with majority local ownership. Elon Musk has denied that Starlink denies service serve Taiwan due to pressure from China or Russia – a theory advanced as Beijing has allowed his electric carmaker Tesla unusually favorable operating conditions. US senator Richard Blumenthal, however, has suggested those links represent a national security risk to the US.

The other satellite ISP Taiwan could tap is Eutelsat OneWeb – but minister Wu reportedly lamented that its bandwidth is insufficient to meet the island's needs.

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Those needs are potentially substantial.

Like most islands, Taiwan relies on submarine cables – and they're vulnerable to outages that can take weeks to fix. Taiwan has recent experience of just such isolation: in 2023 cables connecting outlying islands just 50km from China were damaged. Taiwanese authorities also claim China has attacked its digital infrastructure.

Taiwan also fears China targeting the cables that connect it – a plausible scenario given the West relies on Taiwan for semiconductors and other high-tech products. Beijing knows that disrupting Taiwan's internet would almost certainly hurt its economy and, by extension, pose a problem for its trading partners.

Securing a satellite broadband partner therefore makes a lot of sense.

In November, Amazon advised "we expect to begin deploying our satellite constellation in early 2025 and rolling out service later in the year."

It's unclear if the extent of service Kuiper offers during 2025 will meet Taiwan's needs, or indeed if a deal has been done.

If a relationship is formed, it will be interesting to see how Beijing reacts – and also if it can land significant blows. Amazon.com's Chinese presence is modest, and Amazon Web Services maintains just two regions – both of which are operated by a local partner as required by Chinese law. ®