Satellites and developing countries

Most developing countries use satellite technology for international rather than for domestic communication. In the future, there should be substantially increased domestic and regional use of satellite technology. The potential exists in this application for enormous increases in traffic, and the impact on developing countries´ economies will be the greatest. In addition to the international links, several developing countries also employed INTELSAT capacity to establish domestic public telecommunication networks. Generally, these early domestic networks were set up in special situations where difficult terrain, climatic conditions, or territories separated by large bodies of water, made conventional telecommunications impossible. Subsequently, a number of these developing countries, including India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, launched their own satellites to connect these networks