Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, announced Wednesday that it will launch more than 5,400 satellites to build a new communications network. Called TeraWave, the system aims to provide continuous global internet access and faster data transmission than rival services. Even so, it will have far fewer satellites in orbit than Elon Musk’s Starlink, which currently dominates the satellite internet market.
According to TechCrunch, the low-Earth orbit satellites Blue Origin is building will use RF connectivity and have a max data transfer speed of 144 gigabits per second (gbps), while the medium-Earth variety will use an optical link that can achieve the much higher 6 terabits (Tbps) of speed. For reference, SpaceX’s Starlink currently maxes out at 400 megabits (Mbps) — though it plans to launch upgraded satellites that will offer 1 Gbps data transfer in the future.
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“TeraWave adds a space-based layer to your existing network infrastructure, providing connectivity to locations unreachable by traditional methods,” the new website for the satellite network reads.
While Starlink also offers internet and phone services to individual customers, Blue Origin notes TeraWave will be focused on data centers, businesses and governments.
Blue Origin said in a statement to TechCrunch, that the company identified “an unmet need with customers who were seeking enterprise-grade internet access with higher speeds, symmetrical upload/download speeds, more redundancy, and rapid scalability for their networks.” TeraWave is supposed to solve this.
Interestingly, TeraWave will also compete with Amazon, the company Bezos founded and remains executive chairman of. Amazon’s satellite venture is called Leo, and it currently has around 180 satellites in orbit, having launched dozens more just last week. It plans to eventually have more than 3,000 in orbit.
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Like Starlink, Amazon is also more focused on the general public than businesses and governments, pitching Leo as a way to offer high-speed internet access globally. It has not said when all of the Leo satellites will be in orbit.
Blue Origin said it will start launching its TeraWave satellites by the end of 2027. In November 2025, Blue Origin successfully landed a rocket booster on a floating platform for the first time. Only SpaceX had accomplished this before.
In April 2025, Blue Origin launched a high-profile all-women crew on its flagship space tourism rocket. The crew included pop star Katy Perry, and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez, as well as CBS’s Gayle King, producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist and advocate for survivors of sexual violence. However, this also saw criticism, with people saying it was “tone deaf” for celebrities to be taking part in such a fleeting and expensive trip at a time of economic struggle.