Satellite internet
| Satellite Internet Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Medium | Air or Vacuum |
| License | ITU |
| Maximum downlink rate | 1000 Gbit/s |
| Maximum uplink rate | 1000 Mbit/s |
| Average downlink rate | 1 Mbit/s |
| Average uplink rate | 256 Kbit/s |
| Latency | Average 638 ms |
| Frequency bands | L, C, Ku, Ka |
| Coverage | 100–6,000 km |
| Additional services | VoIP, SDTV, HDTV, VOD, Datacast |
| Average CPE price | €300 (modem + satellite dish) |
Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communications satellites. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high data speeds, with newer satellites using Ka band to achieve downstream data speeds up to 50 Mbps.
Following the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union in October 1957, the US successfully launched the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. The first commercial communications satellite was Telstar 1, built by Bell Labs and launched in July 1962.
The idea of a geosynchronous satellite—one that could orbit the Earth above the equator and remain fixed by following the Earth's rotation—was first proposed by Herman Potočnik in 1928 and popularised by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in a paper in Wireless World in 1945. The first satellite to successfully reach geostationary orbit was Syncom3, built by Hughes Aircraft for NASA and launched August 19, 1963. Succeeding generations of communications satellites featuring larger capacities and improved performance characteristics were adopted for use in television delivery, military applications and telecommunications purposes. Following the invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web, geostationary satellites attracted interest as a potential means of providing Internet access.
A significant enabler of satellite-delivered Internet has been the opening up of the Ka band for satellites. In December 1993, Hughes Aircraft Co. filed with the Federal Communications Commission for a license to launch the first Ka-band satellite, Spaceway. In 1995, the FCC issued a call for more Ka-band satellite applications, attracting applications from 15 companies. Among those were EchoStar, Lockheed Martin, GE-Americom, Motorola and KaStar Satellite, which later became WildBlue.
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