Amazon is preparing to test experimental wireless communications technology, including mobile devices and fixed-base stations, in rural Washington and Seattle, the company disclosed in government filings this week.
The filings do not specify what the tests would be for, but they hint at a new type of technology or wireless service, noting that the project would involve prototypes designed to support “innovative communications capabilities and functionalities.”
Even more intriguing is that Amazon listed Neil Woodward as the main contact on the filings. Woodward, a retired NASA astronaut who joined Amazon in 2008, is now a senior manager for Prime Air, the team in charge of Amazon’s drone-delivery effort, according to his LinkedIn page.
That suggests the tests could involve some kind of communications system to control Amazon’s delivery drones. But the details in the filings could also point to a wireless service designed to work with mobile handsets, such as Amazon’s Kindle tablets, or perhaps the Echo home speakers that Amazon sells.
All over the spectrum
The first tests would take place indoors at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters and would then expand outdoors, to around the company’s customer service facility in Kennewick, 220 miles from Seattle.
According to the documents, which Amazon filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, the tests would involve “low-power, temporary fixed-base transmitters and associated mobile units indoors at and near its company facilities in Seattle, Washington.”
Click here to continue reading…
SOURCE: Eugene Kim
Business Insider
BCNN1 WP 