Satcom nights live, join the internet party

Evolution of satellite communications makes a convincing argument for using them to spread internet coverage in sparsely populated and inaccessible areas. It also allows terrestrial networks to widen their reach beyond urban clusters. Constellations of low-Earth-orbital satellites can create alternative capacity for fibre networks to reduce congestion as cellular infra catches up with demand for broadband services. But building and placing communications satellites in orbit isn't cheap. Neither is the cost of the infra needed on the ground to access satellite internet services. These costs would need to become more affordable for consumers to decide whether they want to watch streaming video beamed from satellites.

Satellite broadband could, in fact, corral users into a low-speed lane, while fibre networks keep increasing bandwidth. There is a limit to how many satellites can be placed in orbit. The way out of this problem would be to increase the carrying capacity per satellite. But at the current state of tech, it's prohibitively expensive. The issue of congestion on satellite networks is sought to be addressed by assigning them spectrum instead of auctioning it. The internet user on a cellular network subsidises a user on a satellite network. And the evolutionary paths of the two technologies will perpetuate the cross-subsidy.

Current users of satcom benefit from the costs sunk into placing satellite constellations in orbit. A future generation of users will have to pay for developing more efficient satellites and reusable rockets and managing space debris. The preferential pricing of spectrum doesn't cover the enormous costs of making satcom scalable. Its deployment in less densely populated areas also limits its ability to pay the technology costs. Satellite internet will remain a dual-use technology for a while, supported by governments paying to secure their strategic interests. Its application will be governed by the pace of commercialisation of space technologies.