Ashwin Prasad
Introduction
Internet connectivity in a country is often likened to neuron connectivity in a human body.1 It enables the transmission of information in real-time across the various discrete systems and actors. It is a fundamental technology that holds enormous integrative abilities across technologies in the civilian and military domains. Internet infrastructure equips this connectivity and consequently becomes central to national strategic information infrastructure.
Internet connectivity can be provisioned by infrastructure on the ground, from space, or, a combination of the two. Ground-based networks for internet connectivity are the most prevalent. They use land-based infrastructure, such as cables, antennas, and towers. Highly populated urban centres present the easiest opportunity for these ground-based internet infrastructure investments. Despite the high initial capital expense, groundbased networks can cater to a large customer base in a densely populated region and therefore are able to offer internet services at low costs. With increasing digitisation and higher smartphone penetration, ground-based networks have also expanded to non-urban population centres.
Despite the cost advantage, ground-based networks suffer many limitations. Their need for local physical infrastructure makes ground-based networks economically unviable in sparsely populated areas. Also, natural disasters like floods and earthquakes can disrupt ground-based internet when communication is critical and downtime is not an option. Even when networks remain functional, disasters and emergencies are accompanied by a sharp surge in usage, resulting in network congestion and tower overruns. 3 Additionally, the demand for ready internet availability on-the-go in remote locations or for operations in temporary sites cannot be fulfilled by groundbased systems.
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