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Dedicated telecom satellite gets commission's stamp
By siliconindia
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Monday, 15 October 2007, 19:30 IST
New Delhi: The Telecom Commission (TC) has approved the Department of Telecom (DoT) proposal to have an independent, dedicated satellite for telecom services. The project, that is estimated to cost about $500 million, is likely to be awarded to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), reported The Economic Times.
The TC approval came after the DoT submitted the recommendations of its internal committee, which had said that having a custom built satellite was a better option as against leasing of transponders or launching an independent satellite.
Presently, the DoT books transponder slots on multi-purpose satellites to cater to the communication demands of telcos. However, this methodology has often not been able to meet the requirements of the sector.
The launch will take about 24 months. SInce the DoT will first have to work out the modalities. Followed by that, ISRO will take between 12 to 24 months to build the satellite.
ET had first reported that the DoT was considering a dedicated satellite for telecom services. Sources said that the DoT was looking at developing a multi-band 24-transponder satellite, which would have a mix of C, Ku and Ka band transponders. The satellite will largely cater to the state-owned BSNL. This has been entrusted with the task of executing most of the government?s rural programmes.
On the other side, the DoT will also extend these facilities to state-owned MTNL and private operators too. Currently, private operators lease transponders from foreign satellites. Most operators in India have a heavy requirement for satellite bandwidth, especially as a backup to link their rural networks.
The DoT's internal committee has pointed out that using satellite services was more cost effective when compared to terrestrial technologies. This is because, with satellites there is no additional costs for addressing each new user once the point-to-multipoint applications system is operational.