Blue Origin Unveils ‘TeraWave,’ a Faster Rival to Starlink
A major aerospace rival to SpaceX has announced a new competitor to Starlink that promises even faster speeds. However, it won’t be built for everyday consumers. Instead, it’s aimed at enterprise and government customers.
The newly revealed system, called TeraWave, is designed to deliver symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth.
Who It’s For and How It Stacks Up
TeraWave appears positioned to compete with Starshield, which uses Starlink technology for military and government customers. It is also described as a secure, high-capacity option intended for civil, defense, and national security users operating in a wide range of environments.
But unlike Starlink, TeraWave targets a much smaller audience. For example, a published graphic suggests a goal of roughly 100,000 customers. Meanwhile, Starlink already has over 9 million users worldwide.
Satellites, Lasers, and a Longer Timeline
TeraWave is planned to include 5,408 satellites operating in both low and medium Earth orbits. Interestingly, it is expected to deliver terabit-level speeds through optical links, suggesting laser-based connectivity rather than relying only on radio signals.
Of the total satellites, 128 are planned for medium Earth orbit with speeds up to 6 Tbps. The remaining 5,280 low-Earth orbit satellites are expected to provide speeds up to 144 Gbps using next-generation Q/V-band links.
The system is arriving alongside another satellite internet effort tied to the same broader ecosystem, though that one is expected to offer lower performance. For now, that separate project is aiming for speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to 400 Mbps and up to 1 Gbps. In addition, only 180 satellites are currently in orbit, although more than 3,200 are planned for its first-generation rollout.
TeraWave appears more advanced, but it is also a longer-term initiative. Deployment of the constellation is expected to begin in Q4 2027.
In the meantime, a formal request has been submitted to the US Federal Communications Commission to launch and operate the constellation. The filing indicates that 5,280 satellites would orbit between 520 and 540 kilometers. Meanwhile, the remaining 128 satellites would operate across five altitude shells between 8,000 and 24,200 kilometers.
The filing also describes the system as useful for remote, rural, and suburban regions where fiber rollout may not be practical. As a result, the network is positioned as a way to increase route diversity, reduce single points of failure, and strengthen overall resilience for data transfer networks.
