In Context
- Reliance Jio has teamed up with SES, a global satellite provider, to launch Satellite broadband services in India.
About
- Satellite Broadband will account for 50 per cent of the global space economy by 2040, Morgan Stanley Report.
- Other Similar Projects in the race: Bharti Airtel Ltd’s OneWeb, Starlink Network project of Elon Musk.
- Currently, fibre optic cables or wireless networks through mobile towers provide internet services.
- JV will use multi-orbit space networks, a combination of GEO (geostationary equatorial orbit) and MEO (medium earth orbit) satellite constellations.
What is Satellite Broadband?
- The technology beams the internet down from a satellite that’s orbiting the Earth.
- It typically communicates with the satellites either in geostationary orbit or Lower Earth Orbit.
- Aim: To provide space internet services at a low cost to every inaccessible terrain.
- GEO and LEO satellites are considered to be the two extremes in satellite communications.
- Advantages and disadvantages of GEO, MEO and LEO:
- GEO satellites provide a larger coverage and therefore only three satellites can cover the whole earth, hundreds of LEO satellites are needed to provide coverage to a larger area.
- LEO satellites are smaller and are cheaper to launch than GEOs or MEOs.
Advantages
- Bring seamless connectivity where fibre connections just can’t reach (hills and remote islands).
- Bridge the digital divide gap in the country & help in India’s Digital India mission.
- Helps in effective navigation and military surveillance
- Effective service delivery & less dependence on infrastructure creation
- Less Latency & easy access
- New economic avenues
Downsides
- An increase in Space debris & risk of collisions of satellites (Kesseler Syndrome)
- Infrastructure access & digital illiteracy
- High initial cost
- Possibility of space warfare, might causes disruptions
Source: IE
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