India to launch its own satellite for satphone
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India to launch its own satellite for satphone
Bangalore: After depending on foreign satellites for long time, ISRO plans to launch its own satellite by 2011, which will carry a large S-band transponder to help India provide its own signals for satellite phones. On the sidelines of the India Semiconductor Association's (ISA's) Vision Summit, former Indian space agency Chairman G Madhavan Nair said, "We are in the process of building a high-beam antenna which will be deployed on board a satellite for providing satellite phone (satphone) services using S-band transponder. We can connect handheld devices when it is launched in a year or so." Indian space agency has already designed the antenna that will be mounted on the spacecraft for dedicated satphone services. Once the satellite gets launched, India will become one of the major players in using satellite phones. This might also help in bringing down the cost of satellite phone services. Nair said, "Presently, some foreign satellites are being used for satphone services in the country. Development work is on to synthesize the antenna. It will be deployed in one of the communication satellites with S-band transponder."

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