All trends

Satellite internet, before the fiber arrives

A dish can bring a site online where a cable is still months away. The useful question is what the link is for, and what happens when the weather or the power changes.

View of Earth and cloud cover from orbit, with part of a spacecraft in the frame

Some sites around Nairobi still wait on fiber. A satellite link can carry email, payments and a camera feed while that wait continues. It is a real option. It is not a copy of a fiber line.

Decide what the link must carry

A till, a few laptops and a guest Wi-Fi network ask for different things. Write down the busy hour and the jobs that cannot stop. That decides whether satellite is a bridge or the main connection.

Plan the unglamorous parts

The dish needs a clear view of the sky, a safe mount, power, and a path to the router inside. Rain, obstruction and a dead backup battery will show up in real use. Test those before calling the job finished.

Keep a way back to fiber

When a cable does arrive, the network should be able to use it without rebuilding every setting. Treat the satellite link as one connection in the plan, not as a box that nobody is allowed to touch later.