Developing Technologies

Satellite

        A communications satellite or Comsat is a man-made satellite which is sent into space and used solely for the transmission telecommunications, such as radio and TV broadcasting. These satellites have a variety of orbits (e.g. Polar and non-polar Earth orbits) and they provide microwave radio relay technology which works effectively with communication cables. The first ever artificial communications satellite (which was produced to enhance global communications) was a balloon named Echo 1 (launched on 12/08/1960 by NASA). It was the first satellite capable of relaying signals to various places on Earth. Without satellite technology we wouldn't be able to do a lot of everyday activities, such as watching certain TV packages. Cable TV providers often use communications satellites to get their signals to the cable wires in your house (e.g. Virgin Media).
        The main advantage of satellite technology is that you are able to connect cities across large landmass easily, as using copper or fibre would be very costly and inefficient. However, if satellites break it costs a lot to bring it back down to Earth, fix it and then send it back up.
        Sky is a good example of a satellite TV provider, as they provide a wide range of channels through communications satellites.

Cable

        Cable refers to TV, Broadband and other services provided by cable distributors, such as BT and Virgin Media. Cable broadband is considered to be far faster than your regular copper-phone-line-cable broadband. In fact you can reach up to speeds of 100 to 120 mbps in certain areas, which is fast! Most people don't have cable broadband however, but it's only available in specific cities in the UK. This also applies to cable TV. Virgin Media provide cable TV services for people in specific areas in the UK. A lot of people are confused as to what the difference between satellite and cable TV is. The difference is in the name - cable TV is transmitted through cable and satellite TV is transmitted through satellite. Satellite TV is available to nearly everyone in the world, unlike cable, but it's heavily dependant on the weather. If the weather is really poor the signal will be really bad and you probably won't be able to watch your TV.

Analogue