The race to satellite internet is intensifying. In the years since SpaceX launched the first batch of Starlinks Back in 2019, several competitors entered the market, including two that you’ve almost certainly heard of recently: Amazon Leo and Blue Origin’s new Office has partnered TeraWave.

StarlinkAmazon Leo, and TeraWave are far from the players in this fast-growing industry, but they stand out because of their massive financial backing and the ambitious strategic vision of their respective billionaire owners. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk manages Starlink, while Jeff Bezos— through Amazon and Blue Origin—develops Amazon Leo and TeraWave.

Each of these brands takes a unique approach to building the next generation of satellite internet technology. Understanding the differences between them is key to understanding how the future of global connectivity may unfold. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

Very different deployment scales

The first thing to understand is that these networks arrived on the scene at different times, and their parent companies chose different deployment strategies. As a result, they are in different stages of development.

Starlink is the most mature of the three. SpaceX is the first to sell its satellite project, informed it was in 2015. Since the start of deployment in 2019, the company has rapidly built the Starlink megaconstellation through hundreds of launches on board. Falcon 9 rocketwith 9,555 Starlinks currently active and providing broadband internet to millions around the world.

Amazon exposed plans to develop a competitor – called Project Kuiper at the time – about a month before SpaceX launched its first batch of operational Starlinks, “but it is slower to actually ramp up and start production,” Kevin Bell, senior vice president of the Engineering and Technology Group (ETG) of The Aerospace Corporation, told Gizmodo. “Some of that is satellite powered, some of that is rocket powered,” Bell explained.

While SpaceX’s approach to Starlink development has focused on rapid iteration and deployment, Amazon has taken the time to finalize the design of its satellites and conduct more prototype testing. Because Amazon doesn’t have its own rockets to support satellite deployment, it partners with launch providers—AMONG SpaceX—to build its constellation.

The company launched their first operational batch of satellites aboard the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket in April 2025. The next launch, set for February 12, will bring the constellation (now called Amazon Leo) to 212 satellites. Because it is still in the early days of scaling, the service has not yet been commercially launched.

Then there’s TeraWave, the newcomer. Blue Origin announced the project on January 21, setting a goal to begin deployment in the first quarter of 2027. The company will likely use New Glenn rocket to launch its satellites, but this has not yet been confirmed. According to the announcement, the TeraWave constellation will eventually increase to 5,408 satellites located in low Earth orbit (where Starlink and Amazon Leo live) and in medium-Earth orbit.

That’s bigger than the Amazon Leo plan deployment of 3,236 satellites, but if Musk can go, Starlink will eclipse Bezos’ two constellations. The Federal Communications Commission recently approved a SpaceX application to launch up to one million additional Starlinks for the purpose of building an orbital data center.

Serving unique markets

Broadly speaking, the satellite internet industry serves two types of customers: businesses and individual users. But according to Bell, these markets can be further divided into five core segments, which are direct to device, direct to consumer, high bandwidth (for business-scale users), backhaul (providing connectivity to underserved areas), and sovereign government.

“While Starlink is kind of spread all over them, Amazon and TeraWave chose — at least initially — to position themselves at the high end,” Bell said.

Starlink actually serves a diverse range of users, from individuals to the American government. Its main customer base, however, Comprising to people living in rural and remote areas without access to reliable, high-speed internet. Amazon Leo eventually plans to target that market, but the first phase of its deployment But select business, government, and telecommunications customers.

TeraWave is unique because it is not aimed at individual customers. This network will serve “tens of thousands” of business, data center, and government users, according to Blue Origin.

“One of the big differences there is that, usually, a business negotiates a service level agreement—so there’s a requirement that the company can provide a certain level of speed, a certain level of capacity,” Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, told Gizmodo.

To meet that demand, Blue Origin will design TeraWave to deliver data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second anywhere on Earth. In comparison, Starlink and Amazon Leo offer speeds from hundreds of megabits to 1 gigabit per second, which are suitable for individuals and some business customers but not suited to high-capacity backhaul or large business operations.

With the growth of these networks, the satellite internet industry is undergoing rapid change. The competition between them—and their many other competitors—will continue to drive innovation, bringing faster speeds, higher capacity, and wider coverage to users around the world.

“Each generation of satellite launched has greater speed and capacity than the previous generation,” Stroup said. “We’re just changing faster than ever.”