Thanks for this, very well thought out post. I was just talking with @aprilangel yesterday about how the internet worked. She was under the assumption that if all the satellites went down we would all lose internet. Apparently a lot of people think this is the case.
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Satellite internet has super high latency.... It can send a ton of information fast, but the clicks between you clicking a link and it then sending you a flood of information are very high.
If the internet used satellites for all of the communication most online gaming would not work, VOIP telephone calls would not work, and many other things would not work.
I used to install satellite internet connections in the mid-2000s. Getting ping times from 1000 - 2000ms was not uncommon.
I once tried to play Unreal Tournament over such a connection. I saw the guy on the other side of the map, aimed, and fired.
Two seconds later the screen updated and I was dead on the ground with the other guy nowhere in sight. :)
I assume there are some satellite services that use some new technology to help reduce this latency, but traveling that distance between earth and the satellite and back cannot get rid of this latency completely due to physics. :)
Most of the internet is on the ground copper, and fiber connections, and some going along the ocean floors.
EDIT: and I assume you already knew all of this... I was just expanding upon your information.
No, I had a general idea but was not for certain. Lol at that lag, that is a serious real world issue. I try not to take it for granted though, my dial-up gaming days are not that far in the past. Have you come across any ubiquity products? Their air fiber is very interesting and somehow creates a data transaction point in the middle somehow, but then again I have no idea what I am even talking about. This information is based on an info graphic I saw.
No I deal with stuff that has to be super reliable, guaranteed speed, and guaranteed latency these days. I am in the VOIP business, so I haven't dealt with that product.
I used it to give internet to a family friend that lives a few blocks away. Need to write a post about it, super hack!