Satellite Internet access Satellite Internet access Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communications satellites. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high data speeds, with newer satellites using to achieve downstream data speeds up to 506 Mbps. Following the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union in October 1957, the US successfully launched the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. The first commercial communications satellite was Telstar 1, built by Bell Labs and launched in July 1962. The idea of a geosynchronous satellite—one that could orbit
Communications Satellite Act of 1962 in time much had been accomplished towards a global communications system. COMSAT had been joined by 17 nations for the creation of INTELSAT, International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium ("Columbia Encyclopedia"). Fifty five nations had joined INTELSAT, which was a consortium established to provide an intergovernmental owning of communications satellites. INTELSAT was created at a time when private companies were unwilling to invest in Satellite technology shortly after the passing of the Communications Satellite act of 1962 (Gruenwald 1998). Communications Satellite Act of 1962 The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 was put into effect in order to deal with the issue of