SATELLITE COMMUNICATION

in telecommunications, the use of orbiting satellites to provide communications links between various points on Earth. Communications satellites provide telephone, television, and data services between widely separated fixed locations (e.g., the switching offices of two different national telephone networks), between fixed locations and mobile users (e.g., shore stations and maritime vessels), and between mobile users (e.g., aircraft and motor vehicles). The technique basically involves transmitting signals from an Earth station to a satellite. Equipment on board the satellite receives the signals, amplifies them, and transmits them to a region of the Earth. Receiving stations within this region pick up the signals, thus providing the communications link.