Verizon today said it plans to pair its terrestrial mobile network with Amazon’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network to push connectivity to unserved and underserved communities. 

The operator said early development efforts are underway, including the definition of initial commercial models for connectivity services targeting U.S. consumers and global enterprises in rural and remote locations. 

Amazon’s Project Kuiper, an effort to increase global broadband access, will feature 3,236 satellites that will serve households, schools, hospitals, and businesses where internet access is limited or unavailable, according to Amazon. The cloud and online shopping giant committed an initial investment of $10 billion to the program in the summer of 2020.

Amazon hasn’t yet said when it will launch the first satellites into orbit.

“We believe we all have a role in making sure every person and every industry can take part in the digital economy. One of the areas Verizon invested in early was around key partnerships that enabled the intersection of mobility, broadband, and cloud,” said Rima Qureshi, EVP and chief strategy officer at Verizon, during a keynote at MWC Los Angeles today.

The partnership between Amazon and Verizon is also underpinned by a years-long effort between the companies on mobile edge computing. 

“In fact, we were first in the world to commercially launch public 5G edge compute with Amazon Wavelength, and just last week commercially launched private 5G edge compute with AWS Outposts,” Qureshi said. 

“Nobody else in the world has launched mobile edge compute at this moment,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg boasted earlier this month. 

Dave Limp, SVP of devices and services at Amazon, joined the stage remotely to showcase a lab at Project Kuiper’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington where Amazon’s building the first satellites for the project. 

“There are billions of people on Earth without reliable internet and the reality is that no single company can close that digital divide on its own,” Limp said. As such, Amazon designed the system to support capacity with other partners like Verizon, the first company to formally join the effort, he added.

“We’re already off and running. To start, we’re focused on using backhaul solutions from Project Kuiper to extend Verizon’s data networks” across 4G LTE and 5G to provide better mobile connectivity to people in rural and remote areas of the United States, Limp explained. “Longer term, we’re looking at ways to connect enterprises who are operating in places with limited or no connectivity.”

Verizon plans to use Kuiper’s technology to augment the coverage of its 5G network and provide backhaul to areas that were previously unreachable, Qureshi explained. “We will use combinations of 5G and LEO connectivity solutions to serve our customers globally and develop advanced solutions for future automated mobility,” she said. 

The operator and cloud provider pointed to specialized opportunities in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, education, emergency response, and transportation. 

Verizon Business today also announced certified IoT devices can now access its 5G network, and businesses can manage those services on Verizon's ThingSpace IoT platform. Additionally, the operator introduced trial availability of new ThingSpace Intelligence capabilities, including analytics and management tools designed to provide customers predictive visibility into the performance of their IoT devices. 

Verizon ThingSpace Intelligence now includes services for wireless network performance, anomaly detection, firmware-over-the-air management, and analytics for predictive maintenance and performance alerts. 

The operator certified a narrowband IoT module from Quectel and said it will introduce new compatible hardware and plans later this year, with millimeter-wave (mmWave) devices expected to be released in the first quarter of 2022.

“Low cost for massive deployment is the name of the game here. The [Quectel] modules go for sub $4 and connectivity plans for less than $1,” Sampath Sowmyanarayan, chief revenue officer at Verizon Business, said today during his keynote at MWC Los Angeles. “You’re getting turnkey cellular connectivity right out of the box — no pairing, no routers, no application, just secure, cost-effective performance from power on.”

Verizon previously integrated its ThingSpace IoT platform with Microsoft Azure IoT Central and Amazon Web Services, giving business IoT customers direct access to both of the leading cloud providers. Verizon’s private, on-premise mobile edge compute service with Microsoft Azure also provides enterprises with a managed services offering that includes the ThingSpace IoT platform, data and video ingestion services, and network security.