Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is taking satellite internet to a whole new level with its newly announced network, TeraWave. Geared toward enterprise clients, data centers, and government customers rather than everyday consumers, the service promises data speeds of up to a staggering 6 Tbps.
According to the official announcement, Blue Origin plans to launch 5,280 low-Earth orbit satellites and 128 medium-Earth orbit satellites for the service, with the first ones set to deploy in late 2027. The low-Earth satellites will rely on RF connectivity and offer a max data transfer speed of 144 Gbps, while the medium-Earth satellites will use optical links to reach the publicized 6 Tbps speed. In comparison, SpaceX’s Starlink maxes out at 400 Mbps at the moment, with future upgrades aiming for 1 Gbps.
Blue Origin says the network is designed to add a “space-based layer” to existing infrastructure and provide coverage in areas that traditional internet struggles to reach. “TeraWave addresses the unmet needs of customers who are seeking higher throughput, symmetrical upload/download speeds, more redundancy, and rapid scalability,” the company added.
Bezos’ broader satellite internet ambitions
The announcement comes just months after Amazon’s rebrand of its own satellite internet service, Leo. Unlike TeraWave, Leo is more consumer-focused and promises download speeds of up to 1 Gbps and peak upload speeds of 400 Mbps. Amazon plans to launch over 3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit for the service, though it currently has around 180 satellites in orbit.
Taken together, TeraWave and Leo highlight how Bezos’ companies are approaching satellite internet from opposite ends of the market. While Leo targets consumers with conventional broadband speeds, TeraWave is aimed squarely at organizations that need extreme capacity and global reach. The two projects also set the stage for broader competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink, positioning Bezos’ ventures against SpaceX across multiple segments of the satellite internet market.
Source: www.digitaltrends.com
