Abbreviation of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit. The GEO satellites orbit at 35848 km. on the terrestrial equator. At that altitude, the rotation period of the satellite is exactly 24 h. and, therefore, it seems to be always on the same place on the surface of the planet.

GEOs need few satellites to cover the entire surface of the Earth. However, they suffer from a delay (latency) of 0.24 s., Due to the distance that the signal must travel from the earth to the satellite and from the satellite to the ground. You also need to obtain specific orbital positions around the equator to stay far enough away from each other (about 1600 km or 2 °). ITU standards and the FCC will indicate what these positions are.

The satellites of medium Earth orbit are at a height between 10075 and 20150 km. Unlike the GEO, their relative position with respect to the surface is not fixed. Being at a lower altitude, a greater number of satellites is needed to obtain global coverage, but the latency is substantially reduced.

At present there are not many MEO satellites, and they are used for positioning.

LEOs promise extraordinary bandwidth and reduced latency. Orbiting generally below 5035 km. and most of them are between 600 and 1600 km.

At such a low altitude, latency acquires more negligible values of a few hundredths of a second and also registers a different velocity than the rotation of the earth.

LEO satellites need simple stations, portable terminals, as well as small antennas and power sources, allowing great flexibility in their use. For the implementation of the information superhighway there is talk of the use of LEO satellites, which are located in a low orbit, are smaller and have less fuel than the GEO satellites. LEO systems require many satellites, located in different planes, to obtain total global coverage, and their useful life would be about 5 years.