Satellite Internet vs. Wireless

This is the most misunderstood area of broadband internet in general and something I address several times a day. Wireless internet is a general broad blanket term. Wireless can be anything from a small localized hot-spot around your home operating of of any broadband provider or a wide broadcast network isp  from a terrestrial tower. Satellite internet even falls under the this general terminology, but there is a major difference that separates satellite from the rest.

Satellite internet is non-terrestrial. It operates wirelessly via satellite to earth. The data source is from a non-terrestrial source (geosynchronous orbiting device) The data stream is fixed between satellite and earth based antenna (dish) such as HughesNet.

Other wide area network wireless is earth based. The antenna at your fixed location end is always seraching for the eath based wide area network antenna. This is much how your cell phone is always searching for the a signal and why service can degrade from minute to minute.