Editing Satellite Internet access (section)

===Gateways===
Along with dramatic advances in satellite technology over the past decade, ground equipment has similarly evolved, benefiting from higher levels of integration and increasing processing power, expanding both capacity and performance boundaries.
The [[Gateway (telecommunications)|gateway]]—or gateway Earth station—is also referred to as a ground station, teleport or hub. The term is sometimes used to describe just the antenna dish portion, or it can refer to the complete system with all associated components.
In short, the gateway receives radio wave signals from the satellite on the last leg of the return or upstream payload, carrying the request originating from the end-user's site. The satellite modem at the gateway location demodulates the incoming signal from the outdoor antenna into IP packets and sends the packets to the local network. Access server/gateways manage traffic transported to/from the Internet. Once the initial request has been processed by the gateway's servers, sent to and returned from the Internet, the requested information is sent back as a forward or downstream payload to the end-user via the satellite, which directs the signal to the subscriber terminal. Each Gateway provides the connection to the Internet backbone for the gateway beam(s) it serves.

The system of gateways comprising the satellite ground system provides all network services for satellite and corresponding terrestrial connectivity. Each gateway provides a multiservice access network for subscriber terminal connections to the Internet.

As the continental United States is north of the equator, all gateway and subscriber dish antenna must have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. Because of the satellite's geostationary orbit, the gateway antenna can stay pointed at a fixed position.