Amazon.com Inc.’s latest potential venture has come straight out of left field with a report Tuesday claiming the company is looking to become an Internet service provider.

According to The Information, the e-commerce and infrastructure giant is planning on becoming an ISP in Europe, with the service to be bundled with Amazon’s Prime rapid delivery and video streaming services.

The report claims that Amazon would provide its service using existing providers in a similar fashion to what occurs in mobile virtual network operators. Many companies in Europe are required to offer wholesale access to rivals, something that isn’t the case in the United States.

“In parts of Europe, such as Britain, broadband providers like British Telecom are required to offer wholesale access to their network to rivals,” The Information notes. “A U.S. offering would be tougher to pull off as US regulators don’t require cable operators to open up their networks to rivals.”

Germany, where Amazon operates a local version of its storefront, in named as having the potential for Amazon to open an ISP service, as “the main provider Deutsche Telekom makes its network available to other broadband providers such as United Internet and Vodafone Germany.”

Bundle

No further details about the proposed service were available, so it’s not clear as to whether Amazon would offer its Internet service at an extra cost with Prime, or as a free extra to customers.

Europe already has a highly competitive internet marketplace with overall growth in the subscriber base slowing in many markets as a result of high broadband penetration, so Amazon would need to offer something either substantially different or remarkably good value for money.

Whether it would try to establish itself as an ISP in the United States is unknown. Given the regulatory hurdles faced by Google Fiber (which is building its own network) and a general lack of wholesale availability, it’s unlikely. But it would be strange to see Amazon roll out a service in one market or continent and then not eventually roll it out in other markets, particularly its home territory.

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