The Difference Between Satellite and Mobile Internet

August 17, 2022 Technology

Both satellite Internet service providers and mobile Internet providers have settled into their roles as rural Internet service providers. They both provide suitable alternative options to cable companies and other Internet providers with a more prominent presence in urban regions of America. Through the use of advanced technologies, both types of Internet providers have provided wireless Internet for rural areas, but there are some key differences in how they provide Internet signals to customers in rural households.

Satellite Internet is self-explanatory because satellite Internet companies send signals to satellites orbiting the Earth, which then send the signals to receivers anywhere in the world. This method gives satellite Internet providers a far reach and is ideal for highly remote areas that are difficult for mainstream Internet service providers to reach. However, satellite Internet signals are vulnerable to obstructions such as trees, hills, and anything else that might block signals from coming in. Also, because of the distance between satellites in outer space and receivers in rural homes, satellite Internet services tend to suffer from high latency.

On the other hand, mobile Internet providers like UbiFi use cell towers to broadcast Internet signals to customers. This works in rural areas because cell towers are almost ubiquitous in the United States, which means they are still abundantly present in rural towns and anywhere else that has a population. Companies like UbiFi may not have technology as advanced as satellite Internet providers like Starlink, but they are still able to offer high-speed, high-performance Internet service with lower latency than most satellite companies. Mobile Internet providers like UbiFi also tend to offer unlimited 4G rural Internet with no data caps, unlike most satellite Internet plans.