Satellites in communications, like GPS, sit on the civilian/military boundary. Early geostationary comsats were dual-purpose from the beginning, and contemporary large low-Earth-orbit constellations continue the pattern — civilian in branding, strategically significant in practice.
Mixed heritage
Communications satellites emerged in the 1960s with both civilian and military customers from the start. National signals-intelligence agencies invested heavily in satellite collection; military command-and-control programs drove demand for hardened links; civilian operators served broadcasters, telecoms, and ships. Launch vehicles themselves, until recently, were often repurposed or closely related to ballistic missiles, further entangling the civilian space economy with defense.
Contemporary constellations
Large low-Earth-orbit constellations, deployed in the late 2010s and 2020s, lowered the latency and cost of satellite broadband to levels competitive with terrestrial networks in many contexts. Their role became visible worldwide during the Russia–Ukraine conflict, when civilian satellite broadband provided resilient connectivity for affected populations and for Ukrainian forces — a case discussed in more detail in Starlink in Ukraine. The same constellations power rural broadband, maritime and aviation connectivity, and a growing share of IoT and remote-monitoring traffic.
Abundance implications
For the purposes of the Age of Abundance, the most important property of satellite communications is geographic equity. Terrestrial networks will always be cheaper where population density is high; satellite capacity is one of the few ways to deliver meaningful connectivity to low-density, remote, or crisis-affected populations without waiting for decades of infrastructure build-out. That makes comsats an important complement to fiber in any honest model of universal Coordination Abundance.
Open questions
The same properties that make satellite comms a civilian abundance lever — ubiquity, resilience, cross-border reach — also make them strategically valuable, and therefore politically contested. Who governs orbit, who can switch off service in a crisis, how spectrum is shared, and how debris risk is managed are unresolved questions. The Starlink in Ukraine case in particular illustrated the fragility of relying on a single commercial operator for life-critical infrastructure during conflict.