Satellites, the internet and cyberspace

Detail

Satellite communication: what it is and why it matters

• Satellite communication means sending signals such as calls, TV and data up to a satellite in space. The satellite sends them back down to a far-off place on Earth.
• When it began: It grew from the 1970s. The USA and the USSR led space research first.
• Why it matters:
• Satellites can reach the remotest places, such as mountains, deserts, islands and the open ocean. No cable or tower is needed there.
• Cost and time do not depend on distance. Sending a message 500 km costs the same as sending it 5,000 km. It also takes about the same time.

• Everyday uses: cell-phone calls, SMS and cable TV all depend on satellites.

• Contrast with transport:

• Roads, railways and ships move goods and people, so their cost rises with distance.
• Satellites move only signals, so their cost stays the same over any distance.

India's early satellites (NCERT milestones)

Satellite	Year / date	Key fact
Aryabhata	19 April 1975	India's first satellite
Bhaskara-I	1979	Early experimental satellite
Rohini	1980	Early experimental satellite
APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment)	19 June 1981	Experimental communication satellite. It went up on a European Ariane rocket
Bhaskara, Challenger, INSAT-1B	early 1980s	Made long-distance communication, television, radio and weather forecasting work well

India's satellites today (beyond NCERT)

• INSAT and GSAT series:
• These are India's communication satellites. They sit in geostationary orbit.
• Geostationary orbit is a path about 36,000 km above the equator. A satellite there moves at the same speed as Earth spins, so it seems to stay fixed over one spot.
• India ran 17 communication satellites from geo-synchronous orbit (as of June 2021) [4].

• Their mission life is 7–15 years. It depends on fuel and design [4].

• Frequency bands used in India: S-band, C-band, Upper Extended C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band [4].

• NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation):
• NavIC is India's own satellite navigation system, an Indian version of GPS. Its earlier name was IRNSS.
• It serves India and its neighbourhood [3].
• Constellation: 3 satellites are in geostationary orbit (GEO). The rest are in geosynchronous orbit (GSO), tilted at 29° to the equator [3].
• 8 operational satellites: IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G and 1I, launched between 2 July 2013 and 12 April 2018 [3].

• ISRO built 9 satellites. IRNSS-1H failed to reach orbit [3].

• GAGAN:

• GAGAN is a Satellite Based Augmentation System. It is extra help that makes GPS-type signals more accurate.
• It is meant for civil aviation and is run with the Airports Authority of India.

• Its signals go through GSAT-8 and GSAT-10 [3].

• NSIL (NewSpace India Limited): ISRO's commercial company. It sells launches and satellite services to Indian and foreign customers.

• Remote-sensing satellites are covered in the remote-sensing-gis note.

The internet

• Internet: the largest electronic network on Earth. It links computers and phones across the world so they can share information.
• Old NCERT figure: about 1,000 million users in over 100 countries (NCERT's dated box).
• How users grew:

Year	Internet users (world)
1995	under 50 million
2000	about 400 million
2010	over 2 billion
2023	about 5.4 billion
2024	about 5.8 billion (revised) [2]
2025	about 6 billion, about three-quarters of humanity [2]

• Online growth: more than 240 million people came online in 2025 alone [2].
• Change in the US share:
• The US share of users fell from 66% (1995) to 25% (2005).
• Users are now spread out, with large numbers in the USA, UK, Germany, Japan, China and India.
• Lesson: the internet moved from being mostly American to being worldwide.

The digital divide (ITU Facts and Figures 2025)

• Digital divide: the gap between people who can use the internet and people who cannot.
• People still offline: about 2.2 billion in 2025, down from 2.3 billion in 2024 [2].
• Where they live: 96% of offline people live in low- and middle-income countries [2].

Gap (2025)	Online share
High-income vs low-income countries	94% vs 23% [2]
Urban vs rural	85% vs 58% [2]
Men vs women	77% vs 71% [2]
Age 15–24 vs everyone else	82% vs 72% [2]

Cyberspace

• Cyberspace: the electronic, computerised world of communication over networks such as the World Wide Web (WWW).
• Key feature: neither the sender nor the receiver has to move. A person can use it from anywhere: an office, a boat or a plane.
• How it widens economic and social life:
• E-mail: messages arrive in seconds.
• E-commerce: buying and selling online.
• E-learning: studying online.
• E-governance: getting government services online.

Global village

• Global village: an idea from Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s. Modern communication links the whole world as closely as people in one village.
• What made it real: the internet, TV, radio and fax.
• NCERT's point: communication, more than transport, turned the world into a global village.
• Transport moves goods and people, but it is slow and its cost rises with distance.
• Communication moves ideas almost instantly at a cost that does not depend on distance.

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet (beyond NCERT)

• LEO satellite internet: broadband internet from large groups of satellites, called constellations, flying low, a few hundred to about 2,000 km up.
• Main constellations: Starlink (SpaceX, USA), Eutelsat OneWeb (Europe/UK) and Amazon Kuiper (USA).
• Why they are low:
• The satellites are close to Earth, so signals travel a short distance.
• This means low latency, a small delay between sending and receiving.
• Each satellite covers only a small area, so thousands are needed.

Feature	Geostationary (e.g. GSAT)	LEO (e.g. Starlink)
Height	about 36,000 km	a few hundred to about 2,000 km
Position	fixed over one spot	moves fast across the sky
Satellites needed	a few	hundreds to thousands
Delay	higher	low
Best for	TV, DTH, weather	broadband in remote areas, on ships, in war zones

India's satcom rules

• IN-SPACe:
• Its full name is the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre.
• It is an independent agency under the Department of Space, set up in the 2020 space reforms. It promotes and oversees private space activity [5].

• Capacity from foreign satellites can be used for broadband in India only after IN-SPACe authorisation [5].

• Licences:

• The DoT (Department of Telecommunications) gave GMPCS licences to three companies: OneWeb India, Jio Satellite Communications and Starlink Satellite Communications [6].
• GMPCS means Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite.
• Earlier, OneWeb and Jio held licences while Starlink had only a Letter of Intent [5].

• India began licensing these services in 2025.

• Spectrum:

• Spectrum is the radio frequencies that carry signals.
• India assigns satellite spectrum by administrative allocation, not by auction, in line with international practice [6].

• TRAI said spectrum should be assigned within 30 days of an application [7].

• One combined licence: GMPCS and commercial VSAT have been merged into one "Satellite-based Telecommunication Service Authorisation" [8].

• VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) is a small dish linking an office or a remote site to a satellite.

Issues with LEO constellations

• Space debris:
• Thousands of satellites raise the risk of crashes.

• One crash makes many fragments, and each fragment can hit other satellites.

• Harm to astronomy: bright satellite trails spoil telescope images of the night sky.

• Sovereignty and security:
• A private foreign company can control a country's communication links.
• Example: Starlink in Ukraine, which keeps the war-hit country connected.

• This is why India requires IN-SPACe authorisation [5].

• Closing the digital divide:

• LEO broadband can reach places where laying cable costs too much: hills, islands, the North-East, Ladakh and ships at sea.
• This can help close the 58% rural vs 85% urban gap [2].
• See the tertiary-quaternary-activities note.

Prelims Hooks

• Aryabhata was India's first satellite (19 April 1975). APPLE went up on 19 June 1981 on a European Ariane rocket.
• In satellite communication, cost and time do not rise with distance: 500 km costs the same as 5,000 km.
• "Global village" comes from Marshall McLuhan (1960s). NCERT credits communication, not transport, with making it real.
• NavIC: 3 GEO satellites plus the rest in GSO tilted at 29°. It has 8 operational satellites, and IRNSS-1H failed [3].
• GAGAN is an augmentation system for civil aviation. Its signals go through GSAT-8 and GSAT-10 [3].
• ITU 2025: about 6 billion people online and about 2.2 billion offline. 96% of offline people live in low- and middle-income countries [2].
• The US share of internet users fell from 66% (1995) to 25% (2005).
• LEO satellites fly a few hundred to about 2,000 km up. GEO satellites fly at about 36,000 km.
• India assigns satcom spectrum administratively, not by auction [6]. GMPCS licence holders: OneWeb, Jio Satellite and Starlink [6].
• IN-SPACe (2020) works under the Department of Space, not the DoT [5].

Mains Points

• Communication has shrunk the world more than transport:
• Satellite costs do not depend on distance.
• Cyberspace needs no physical movement.
• Together they turned McLuhan's "global village" into fact.

• This powers e-commerce, e-learning and e-governance (GS-I/III).

• The digital divide is a geographic divide:

• Internet use is 94% in high-income countries but 23% in low-income ones.
• It is 85% in towns but 58% in villages (ITU 2025) [2].

• LEO broadband can reach India's hilly, island and border areas where cables cost too much.

• Space-based connectivity raises sovereignty and environmental questions:

• Foreign private constellations (Starlink in Ukraine) can shape communication in a conflict.
• India's answer is IN-SPACe authorisation, licensing by the DoT and administrative spectrum allocation [5][6].

• At the same time, India builds its own systems: the INSAT/GSAT series, NavIC and NSIL's commercial launches.

• Infrastructure for strategic autonomy (GS-III):

• NavIC reduces India's dependence on foreign GPS.
• GAGAN makes aviation navigation safer.
• India's own communication satellites protect TV, weather and disaster-warning links.