Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites; if it can sustain high speeds, it is termed satellite broadband. 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 the to achieve downstream data speeds up to 506 Mbit/s.End-to-End Efficiency for Trunking Networks, Newtec IP Trunking, 2013 In addition, new satellite internet constellations are being developed in low-earth orbit to enable low-latency internet access from space.
History 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 on 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 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, which then became Viasat.
Among prominent aspirants in the early-stage satellite Internet sector was Teledesic, an ambitious and ultimately failed project funded in part by Microsoft that ended up costing more than $9 billion. Teledesic's idea was to create a satellite Internet constellation of hundreds of low-orbiting satellites in the Ka-band frequency, providing inexpensive Internet access with download speeds of up to 720 Mbit/s. However, the project was abandoned in 2003. Teledesic's failure, coupled with the bankruptcy filings of the satellite communications providers Iridium Communications Inc. and Globalstar, dampened marketplace enthusiasm for satellite Internet development. The first Internet-ready satellite for consumers was launched in September 2003.
In 2004, with the launch of Anik F2, the first high-throughput satellite, a class of next-generation satellites providing improved capacity and bandwidth became operational. More recently, high throughput satellites such as ViaSat's ViaSat-1 satellite in 2011 and HughesNet's Jupiter in 2012 have achieved further improvements, elevating downstream data rates from 1 to 3 Mbit/s up to 12 to 15 Mbit/s and beyond. Internet access services tied to these satellites are targeted largely to rural residents as an alternative to Internet service via dial-up, ADSL or classic FSSes.
In 2013, the first four satellites of the O3b constellation were launched into medium Earth orbit (MEO) to provide internet access to the "other three billion" people without stable internet access at that time. Over the next six years, 16 further satellites joined the constellation, now owned and operated by SES.O3b MEO SES. Accessed 25 April 2021
Since 2014, a rising number of companies announced working on internet access using satellite constellations in low Earth orbit. SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon all planned to launch more than 1000 satellites each. OneWeb alone raised $1.7 billion by February 2017 for the project, and SpaceX raised over one billion in the first half of 2019 for their service called Starlink. They expected more than $30 billion in revenue by 2025 from its satellite constellation. Starlink, as of February 2024, has 5,402 operational satellites in orbit.
Many planned constellations employ laser communication for inter-satellite links to effectively create a space-based internet backbone.
As of 2017, airlines such as Delta and American have been introducing satellite internet as a means of combating limited bandwidth on airplanes and offering passengers usable internet speeds.
In September 2017, SES announced the next generation of O3b satellites and service, named O3b mPOWER, a constellation of seven MEO satellites to deliver 10 terabits of capacity globally through 30,000 spot beams for broadband internet services.SES building a 10-terabit O3b "mPOWER" constellation Space News 11 September 2017. Accessed 25 April 2021 The number of O3b mPOWER satellites ordered was subsequently increased to 11 and then 13, and on 16 December 2022, the first two O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched, with four more in 2023, and the service began operations alongside the existing O3b constellation in April 2024.SpaceX launches first pair of O3b mPower satellites SpaceNews. 16 December 2022. Accessed 31 December 2022SpaceX launches final pair of O3b mPower satellites needed for commercial services SpaceNews 12 November 2023. Accessed 18 December 2024SES’ O3b mPOWER MEO System is Now Operational, Service Rollout to Follow Via Satellite. 24 April 2024. Accessed 18 December 2024 Two further satellites have since joined the constellation, launched in 2024Boeing ships first two redesigned O3b mPower satellites SpaceNews 13 November 2024. Accessed 27 February 2025SpaceX launches redesigned O3b mPower satellites SpaceNews 18 December 2024. Accessed 20 January 2025
Consumers experienced performance increases in the 2020s, largely based on the decision of services like Starlink to deploy satellites at the low earth orbit level, which allowed for much lower latency than internet satellites deployed at the geostationary level, as they traditionally were.
Companies and market
United States companies providing home internet service in the United States via satellite included ViaSat, through its Exede brand, EchoStar, through subsidiary HughesNet, Starlink, and Amazon Leo. Operators of non-geostationary satellite internet constellations must demonstrate compliance with equivalent power flux density (EPFD) limits established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
European Union The EU plans to commence the IRIS² project in the 2020s.
China China is in the process of developing its own, state-owned, satellite internet constellation, run by Chinasat.
India As of 2023, India’s main offerings in the space were Oneweb and JioSpaceFiber, with the country considering licenses for Starlink and Project Kuiper.
Function
Satellite Internet generally relies on three primary components: a satellite historically in geostationary orbit (or GEO) but now increasingly in Low Earth orbit (LEO) or Medium Earth orbit MEO) a number of ground stations known as gateways that relay Internet data to and from the satellite via radio waves (microwave), and further ground stations to serve each subscriber, with a small antenna and transceiver. Other components of a satellite Internet system include a modem at the user end which links the user's network with the transceiver, and a centralized network operations centre (NOC) for monitoring the entire system. Working in concert with a broadband gateway, the satellite operates a Star network topology where all network communication passes through the network's hub processor, which is at the centre of the star. With this configuration, the number of ground stations that can be connected to the hub is virtually limitless.
Satellite Marketed as the centre of the new broadband satellite networks are a new generation of high-powered GEO satellites positioned above the equator, operating in Ka-band (18.3–30 GHz) mode. These new purpose-built satellites are designed and optimized for broadband applications, employing many narrow spot beams, which target a much smaller area than the broad beams used by earlier communication satellites. This spot beam technology allows satellites to reuse assigned bandwidth multiple times which can enable them to achieve much higher overall capacity than conventional broad beam satellites. The spot beams can also increase performance and consequential capacity by focusing more power and increased receiver sensitivity into defined concentrated areas. Spot beams are designated as one of two types: subscriber spot beams, which transmit to and from the subscriber-side terminal, and gateway spot beams, which transmit to/from a service provider ground station. Note that moving off the tight footprint of a spotbeam can degrade performance significantly. Also, spotbeams can make the use of other significant new technologies impossible, including 'Carrier in Carrier' modulation.
In conjunction with the satellite's spot-beam technology, a bent-pipe architecture has traditionally been employed in the network in which the satellite functions as a bridge in space, connecting two communication points on the ground. The term "bent-pipe" is used to describe the shape of the data path between sending and receiving antennas, with the satellite positioned at the point of the bend. Simply put, the satellite's role in this network arrangement is to relay signals from the end user's terminal to the ISP's gateways, and back again without processing the signal at the satellite. The satellite receives, amplifies, and redirects a carrier on a specific radio frequency through a signal path called a transponder.
Some satellite constellations in LEO such as Starlink and the proposed Telesat constellation will employ laser communication equipment for high-throughput optical inter-satellite links. The interconnected satellites allow for direct routing of user data from satellite to satellite and effectively create a space-based optical mesh network that will enable seamless network management and continuity of service.
The satellite has its own set of antennas to receive communication signals from Earth and to transmit signals to their target location. These antennas and transponders are part of the satellite's "payload", which is designed to receive and transmit signals to and from various places on Earth. What enables this transmission and reception in the payload transponders is a repeater subsystem (RF (radio frequency) equipment) used to change frequencies, filter, separate, amplify and group signals before routing them to their destination address on Earth. The satellite's high-gain receiving antenna passes the transmitted data to the transponder which filters, translates and amplifies them, then redirects them to the transmitting antenna on board. The signal is then routed to a specific ground location through a channel known as a carrier. Beside the payload, the other main component of a communications satellite is called the bus, which comprises all equipment required to move the satellite into position, supply power, regulate equipment temperatures, provide health and tracking information, and perform numerous other operational tasks.
Gateways Along with dramatic advances in satellite technology over the past decade, ground equipment has similarly evolved, benefiting from higher levels of integration and increasing processing power, expanding both capacity and performance boundaries.