Amazon hopes to experiment with wireless communications technology in Washington, according to a government filing.
The Seattle-based company has asked the Federal Communications Commission permission to test undisclosed prototypes and software for five months.
Details are scant; trials may focus on a new type of wireless tech or service that "support innovative communications capabilities and functionalities," the FCC filing said.
Amazon proposed that a limited number of low-power, temporary fixed-based transmitters and associated mobile units be operated at and around its 7th Avenue headquarters early next year; additional testing would be conducted near the organization's facility in Kennewick, Wash. Temporary base stations will transmit an average of five minutes per hour, per day, per week.
Granting the requested experimental license "is in the public interest, convenience, and necessity," Amazon argued in its filing.
Perhaps most notable, though, is the appointment of Neil Woodward—retired Naval officer, former NASA astronaut, and senior manager of Amazon Prime Air—as the project's main contact. As Business Insider pointed out, that implies the requested tests could involve a communications system for the company's delivery drones.
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Amazon successfully completed its first Prime Air drop off in December: Richard B. of Cambridgeshire, England, received an Amazon Fire TV Stick and bag of Propercorn popcorn via unmanned aerial vehicle. The tech giant has been working on Prime Air since at least 2013, promising half-hour, same-day delivery. But the US has been slow to approve drone regulations.
Neither Amazon nor the FCC immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment.
"Innovation is one of our guiding principles at Amazon," CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement last week, announcing plans to create more than 100,000 new full-time, full-benefit jobs in the US over the next 18 months.