The history of satellite communications can be traced back to an article by the British science writer Arthur Clarke in the British Magazine “Wireless World”. He pointed out that if a satellite could be flung into an orbit 36,000 km above the earth, it would travel at the same speed as the rotation of the earth. It would thus appear to be stationary and would be in line of sight for sending and receiving stations at about 40% of the globe. Clark concluded that only three satellites would be needed for global communication.
The first satellite (Sputnik) was sent up by the former Soviet Union in October 1957, but not in the geo-stationary orbit. The first geo-stationary satellite was sent up by the US in 1963. The satellites were primarily designed to enable a high-capacity transmission medium for the increasing international telephone traffic. The development of optical fiber technology was also intensified at that time. The optical fibers proved to be competitive with satellite communication in handling international telephone traffic. One of the alternative uses of the satellites that turned out to be a success was broadcasting, both as a means of distribution to the transmitters and relay stations, but also as direct broadcasting to end-consumers.
It is possible to use satellite for the provision of broadband connections. Here the return path must be established through other networks, like PSTN. The technology used for implementing down-stream IP connectivity is IP data Cast (IPDC). IPDC can also be used in terrestrial broadcast networks and is seen as a viable candidate to offer broadband services to mobile devices in combination with the regular mobile networks. Another implementation of satellite networks, which is highly costly, is implementation of two-way satellite link using VSAT technology. This is mainly used as backbone technology and as access technology to business users, mainly in the parts of the world that are far from fiber backbones. Developing countries are the main users of VSAT.