The Internet is one of the powerful communication medium to share and
to exchange ideas and information through the use of computers and
other infrastructure such as routers and servers. The integration of
different technologies has resulted in the convergence of textual data,
graphics, video, and voice for transmission.
The power of the Internet has been restricted by the speed of the
Internet and the availability of the infrastructure. The infrastructure
is the local Internet service provider. Conventional Internet transmits
data through modem and the telephone. The speed is constrained by the
availability of free space in the telephone lines and is very often
less than 256 kbps. This meant that uploading and downloading of
information took minutes and sometimes hours.
The availability of new technologies has enabled high speed Internet
access with a minimum of 256 kbps and sometimes more than 1.5 Mbps.
Broadband, as the collection of technologies is called, achieves this
through the use of Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), cable, wireless,
ISDN, and satellite.
Satellite Internet connects the computer to the Internet service
provider through a satellite orbiting miles above the earth. Satellites
provide telephone, television, and also Internet connectivity.
Satellite Internet doesn’t require telephone lines. The computer is
connected to a dish, and the information is sent to the satellite and
from there, to the service provider.
Satellite Internet is useful in remote locations such as rural areas
and in mobile areas such as vessels. Because of the long-distance links
between dish and the satellite, there is always a delay in sending
data, and hence for this reason satellite Internet is not useful in
critical applications such as online gaming and real-time share
trading. Another limitation is that very bad weather will affect
reception.
It is one of the new evolving technologies, and therefore the costs of
installation and monthly fees are high. It is the most expensive
service among the broadband services. Hence, there are few service
providers such as Directway and Starband.