Choosing Between Satellite and Fiber Optic Communication: Understanding the Differences

Nothing is free from evil except the creator. So to choose which one is better for us, we must have to know our necessity and understand the better one by investigating their properties. Here are the required properties of satellite and fiber-optics communications:

• Satellite suffers from propagation delay. For optical fiber, there are no such delays. Thus, fiber optic is quicker and has a higher data rate than satellite in communication.
• We can easily repair Fiber Optics in case of any fault, but satellite cannot be repaired.
• Satellite is wireless and can cover regions where fiber optics infrastructure is not possible. Satellite is more suitable for rough terrain and remote areas where fiber optics and microwave cannot be used.
• Optical Fiber has a higher bandwidth compared to Satellite.
• Fiber optics is a wired network and requires a huge investment in setting up than satellite (although fiber optics' initial cost is low, but Satellite is very high) depending upon the size of the network. For example, minimum three or four satellites can cover the whole world. Fiber optics can also do that, but cost considerations are to be worked out (possible with solition communications only). But once set, it allows the most efficient data transfer in terms of speed and reliability than satellite.
• Many people want to communicate during jogging, driving, sailing, and flying, and all of these are possible in Satellite Communication, but Fiber Optics cannot be used for them.
• Satellite provides global mobile communication such as GPS. But there is no possibility of mobile terminals for optical fiber, since the cable is to be laid physically.

Therefore, both have merits and demerits over one another. This may be enough! So the choice is yours according to necessity.