Govt to lease foreign transponders to keep telecom plans on track
George Iype in New Delhi
Hamstrung by the failure of INSAT-2D, the government now plans to lease transponders on foreign satellites so that India's ambitious telecommunication plans are not disrupted.
INSAT-2D, which lost its earth lock on October 1 after a short circuit in its power supply, was abandoned on Sunday.
Top Indian Space Research Organisation scientists led by ISRO chairman Dr K Kasturirangan
have huddled together in emergency meetings with officials of the departments of science and technology, telecommunications, ministries of finance and information and broadcasting in New Delhi for the past two days.
The INSAT Co-ordination Committee, which oversees India's satellite programme, also held a series of meetings in the capital to draft a contingency plan to overcome the setbacks caused by INSAT-2D's failure.
These meetings are said to have concluded that leasing transponders on foreign satellites is the only option to meet the growing demands of private satellite television and telecommunications networks in the country.
Sources said officials at the ministries of finance and science and technology will work out the financial implications of hiring transponders in foreign countries in the next few days. The Cabinet
will discuss the issue soon after Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral returns home from his foreign visit.
The Cabinet is expected to give its go-ahead to the proposal to lease foreign transponders as the government does
not want its telecommunication expansion plans to be hit by INSAT-2D's failure.
An official at the science and technology ministry told Rediff On The NeT that leasing foreign transponders will be "an ad hoc arrangement."
"The country's current satellite problems," he added, "will be solved when we launch INSAT-2E sometime next year."
ISRO has already informed the government that INSAT-2E can be launched in May or June. The launch cannot take place earlier as the slot has been booked almost two years in advance.
INSAT-2E will be launched on the Ariane rocket from French Guyana. It will be a more powerful and heavier
satellite with 17 transponders and carry a more advanced system than INSAT-2D.
After the failure of INSAT-2D, India's entire range of satellite operations -- the national television network,
telecommunications, railways, the stock exchanges -- are now dependent on 63 transponders on four satellites
INSAT 2A, 2C, 2B, and 1D.
INSAT-2D had seven transponders -- four being used by the telecommunications department and the
remaining three by the National Stock Exchange.
It was launched on June 4 at an estimated cost of around Rs 4.3 billion.
The NSE began functioning on Thursday after all its 779 Very Small Aperture Terminals, which were perched on INSAT-2D,
were shifted to INSAT-2A. NSE had suspended trading for the past week as the satellite's failure crippled operations.
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