Amazon has partnered with satellite company Iridium Communications on a project called CloudConnect to bring Internet connectivity to places in the world which currently lack connections.
The project, which is set to launch in 2019, specifically partners Iridium with Amazon Web Services — Amazon’s division of the company which provides web hosting and services for companies and individuals for a monthly fee.
“We’re really covering the whole planet … with terrestrial networks today it’s still only 10 percent or 20 percent [of Earth],” declared Iridium CEO Matt Desch. “Everybody today can connect pretty easily with very little effort. Now that Amazon has put our language into the cloud platform, they can extend their applications to the satellite realm.”
Desch added that Iridium is “the first, and only, satellite provider now connected to” Amazon Web Services, and CloudConnect will be “where cellular technologies aren’t.”
Amazon Web Services has amassed a large amount of power over the past few years, becoming approved last year to host secrets from the U.S. Department of Defense, including the “highest level of unclassified information.”
In 2017, a huge number of websites, including those for government agencies, suddenly became unavailable after Amazon Web Services went down unexpectedly, highlighting the influence of the company.
This month, Citi Research claimed in a note to clients that Amazon should split the company into retail and Amazon Web Services to avoid regulation.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.