How satellite broadband works
What is satellite broadband?
Satellite broadband delivers internet from orbit rather than through ground cables or mobile masts. Your dish sends signals to a satellite, which relays them to a ground station connected to the wider internet — and back again, often in milliseconds. It connects ships, aircraft, remote farms and increasingly ordinary homes underserved by fibre.
Who uses it?
Rural homes and businesses, maritime and aviation operators, government and emergency teams, and anyone beyond the reach of fixed-line broadband.
How fast is it?
Modern LEO services deliver tens to hundreds of Mbps with 25–60 ms latency — comparable to fixed-line. Older GEO systems are slower with much higher latency.
Where does it work?
Almost anywhere with a clear view of the sky. LEO constellations now offer near-global coverage; GEO covers wide areas per satellite.
How the data travels
When you load a page, your terminal encodes the request as a radio signal (typically Ka- or Ku-band), beams it to a satellite, which relays it to a gateway ground station linked to terrestrial fibre. The response retraces the path. The whole round trip takes anywhere from about 20 ms (LEO) to 700 ms (GEO), depending almost entirely on orbit height.
Why orbit height is everything
The speed of light is a hard limit, so distance dictates latency. This single fact explains the industry's decade-long shift from a few far-away GEO satellites to thousands of close-in LEO satellites. See the full LEO vs MEO vs GEO comparison →