Satellite Internet in the USA

Pros and Cons of Satellite Internet

What is Satellite Internet?

Satellite Internet is a method of delivering Internet service by via satellite connection. This is accomplished by transmitting data from provider offices up to satellites in orbit, which then broadcast data to subscribers with reception dishes at their locations.

Though not as prolific as other mediums, consumer satellite internet has been around since the late 1990’s, and has improved by several orders of magnitude since then.

At this moment, most current satellite service offerings pale in comparison to other, wired alternatives in terms of both overall performance and reliability. This is beginning to change, but for the time being, satellite remains primarily viable for those who have little to no other options for getting online.

This has obviously made it an attractive option for millions of Americans residing in remote, rural communities where wired infrastructure has not been installed — primarily due to the lack of economic incentive to do so by for-profit cable corporations. This underserved market continues to be a test-bed for emerging technologies such as fixed wireless, as well as high-speed, low-Earth orbit satellite and other space-based projects.

Misconceptions about Satellite Internet

Satellite Internet is not mobile LTE

Satellite Internet is broadcast from satellites in space, while mobile LTE is distributed by cell phone towers distributed around cities and communities. The companies that provide mobile and satellite Internet are not the same.

Satellite Internet is not WiFi

Wifi is the term for wireless service on high frequencies inside households. Satellite Internet transmits wirelessly on lower frequency bands. Once a satellite Internet customer has received satellite data via their roof or yard dish, this is then transmitted to their house by a coaxial or ethernet cable and transmitted as WiFi from a router inside the home.

How Does Satellite Internet Work?

In simplified terms, a physical antenna (often mounted on the roof of a home or business) picks up a signal from a larger satellite positioned in geostationary orbit around 22,300 miles above the Earth’s equator. This means that the satellites are always in the same position relative to the ground, so they are strategically laid out to cover entire continental swaths of land.

Because of this wide-area approach, satellite internet is ideal for extremely remote locations, such as remote tropical islands or sparsely populated rural areas. Regardless of where service is sent to on the ground, the signal is a two-way communication from antenna to space and back again. Once communications are received, they are fed into a home or businesses router, which in turn connects individual devices to the web.

Most satellite systems operate on the Ku spectrum band, which is the same frequency (14000 to 14500 MHz) that police officers use for traffic radar. Though this has been a standard for many years, certain satellites can also operate on L-band, C-band, and Ka-band spectrum as well. Several companies are researching next-generation satellite technologies that take advantage of bands never before used in satellite technologies before, but as of now, none of these are operational beyond the prototyping stage.

The future of satellite internet

Though satellite internet lags behind terrestrial internet options today in terms of both speed and reliability, this is beginning to change with rapidly advancing telecommunications technology. As innovation and expansion begins to stall out amongst wired internet providers, more and more companies are starting to see potential in low Earth orbiting satellite arrays that could soon connect millions around the world with broadband-level speeds never before seen from a space-based connection.

In fact, companies like OneWeb, Boeing and SpaceX all have ongoing plans to launch more than 1000 physical satellites each over the next 5 years. The latter expects to see revenue amounts of up to $30 billion by 2025 based on this technology alone. 

Many of these networks will also rely on inter-satellite laser communication to effectively create a space-based internet backbone, which could change the way we view the web in its entirety. Airline companies such as Delta and American have even begun implementing satellite internet options for passengers in an attempt to provide superior speeds on some of their flights, and this trend is only expected to continue as these technologies become more competitive. 

The future this new breed of satellite array conveys is a bold and exciting one. As innovations in broadcast mediums and orbital technology continues to increase, it is likely that the satellite internet industry will see fundamental shifts in its structure, enabling new ways for people long cut off from broadband access to join the modern, connected world.