satellite service

Fixed Service Satellite (or FSS), is the official classification (used chiefly in North America) for geostationary communications satellites used chiefly for broadcast feeds for television and radio stations and networks, as well as for telephony, data communications, and also for Direct-To-Home (DTH) cable and satellite TV channels (although this role has been somewhat, but not completely, supplanted by DBS television systems).

Before the advent of direct broadcast satellite or DBS, technology in North America, FSS satellites were used for DTH satellite TV from the late 1970s into the 1980s there, up until the first DBS television system in the continent was launched in 1994 with the start of DirecTV.

FSS satellites were the first geosynchronous communications satellites launched in space (such as Intelsat 1 (Early Bird), Syncom 3, Anik 1, Westar 1, Satcom 1 and Ekran) and new ones are still being launched and utilized to this day.

FSS satellites operate in either the C band (from 3. 7 to 4. 2 GHz) and the FSS Ku bands (from 11. 45 to 11. Satellite TV service continues to grow at an ever increasing rate in popularity. 7 and 12. 5 to 12. 75 GHz in Europe, and 11. 7 to 12. 2 GHz in the United States).

FSS satellites operate at a lower power than DBS satellites, requiring a much larger dish than a DBS system, usually 3 to 8 feet for Ku band, and 12 feet on up for C band (compared to 18 to 24 inches for DBS dishes).