Context:
Reliance Jio successfully demonstrated India’s first satellite-based gigabit internet service.
News Summary:
- It partners with Luxembourg-based satellite communications company SES to provide medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite internet.
- Usually, satellite internet involves constellations of Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites as used in Starlink and OneWeb.
Click here to read about Satellite Constellation Projects
Comparison between usage of MEO and LEO:
- Advantage – MEO can cover a larger area of the globe with much fewer satellites.
- Disadvantage – higher latency, requires a larger satellite dish.
About Satellite Internet:
- It provides an online connection powered by satellites.
- Internet service providers launch multiple satellites into space that orbit around Earth.
- It works by using radio waves to communicate with satellites.
- Communication network (Data Transfer) –
- It includes a modem, satellite dish, and a centralized Network Operations Centre (NOC) for monitoring the entire system.
- Advantages – connecting people from remote or rural areas, multi-device access, etc.
- Disadvantages – higher latency and expensive compared to ground-based internet, Severe weather conditions can interrupt transmission, etc.
Source: Indian Express
Previous Year Question
‘Project Loon’, sometimes seen in the news, is related to
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2016 Prelims]
(a) waste management technology
(b) wireless communication technology
(c) solar power production technology
(d) water conservation technology
Answer: (b)
