Endeavour Optical Networks Wants to Replace Undersea Cables with Lasers in Space

On August 4, 2026, startup Endeavour Optical Networks (EON) announced plans to launch the fastest commercial laser communication system ever deployed in open space. The company's goal is to move the "information backbone" from the ocean floor into orbit and offer a real alternative to the undersea fiber-optic cables that now carry most of the world's internet traffic.

How does laser communication work in space?

Free-Space Optical (FSO) technology transmits data between satellites using laser beams in a vacuum, with no wires and no physical infrastructure on the seabed. Compared with undersea fiber, FSO has structural advantages: there are no vulnerable points underwater, it can reach any point on the planet, and it can reroute traffic in seconds rather than the months a cable repair takes.

FSO is not new: NASA and the European Space Agency ran experimental laser communication missions as far back as the 2010s and proved the technology works in principle. The commercial turning point came in 2023, when SpaceX put inter-satellite laser links into real-world operation in the Starlink network.

The main technical challenge is aiming a laser beam accurately at a satellite moving at a speed of several thousand kilometers per hour. SpaceX solved this with high-speed gimbal mechanisms. EON claims record-breaking speeds and, presumably, takes its own technical approach. The company is targeting the enterprise segment: backbone links for data centers, not mass-market consumer internet.

Why have undersea cables become a vulnerability?

According to the analytics firm TeleGeography, undersea fiber-optic systems carry about 95% of all international data traffic, and they remain critically vulnerable infrastructure. In 2024–2025, incidents in the Red Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Pacific region caused temporary outages for major telecom operators.

In response, the tech giants Microsoft, Google and Meta* are increasing their investment in their own cable systems. But laying a new cable takes years and costs hundreds of millions of dollars. Orbital laser infrastructure can, in theory, be deployed faster and is not tied to seabed terrain.

For AI companies, the reliability of intercontinental links is a competitive issue. Training large language models on distributed GPU clusters and delivering inference globally both require high-speed, low-latency connections between data centers on different continents.

EON "wants to move the data backbone from ocean cables to space lasers," according to a

TechCrunch report published on August 4, 2026.

What this means

EON is entering a crowded market: Starlink, Amazon Kuiper, OneWeb and European operators are already building orbital data transmission networks. What sets EON's announcement apart is its focus on enterprise backbone links with record speeds, rather than mass consumer coverage. The company has not yet disclosed technical specifications, launch timelines for its first satellites, or funding details. Still, the announcement itself marks the arrival of a new, ambitious player in orbital communications.

*Meta is designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia.