Moving to regulate satellite communication
from the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given the
initial nod to earmark $8 million to state-owned BSNL for the establishment of
a satellite communication gateway in India. Currently, satellite-based telecom
services in India are provided by international operators without an earth
station in the country. In the absence of a gateway in India, law enforcement
agencies are not able to monitor calls made from or to the satellite phones
being used in India which, according to DoT officials, pose a national security
threat.
The country is also dependent on foreign
gateways for satellite communication services required by security forces and
others at the time of disaster response, especially when normal communication
systems break down. The proposal to build what is called a Global Mobile
Personal Communication by Satellite or GMPCS gateway in the country will enable
the rollout of full-fledged satellite-based communication services by BSNL in
partnership with the UK-based INMARSAT (International Mobile Satellite
Organisation.
Officials in the DoT said BSNL has already
been granted a ‘sui generis’ licence for the provision of satellite-based
services on the recommendation of the sector regulator, the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI), conditional to the satellite gateway being located
within India. An agreement has already been signed by BSNL with INMARSAT three
months ago and the expected completion date of the project is March, 2016. In
the early part of the last decade, INMARSAT was offering services in India
through the then state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). But this service
was almost completely wound up after the government divested its majority stake
in VSNL to Tata Communications. The INMARSAT, which was set up under the aegis
of United Nations in 1979 with India as one of the founding members, provides
its satellite services with a constellation of four satellites that are located
in the geo-stationary earth orbit. According to the proposal, BSNL has proposed
to establish the gateway under technology transfer from INMARSAT, with the
international organisation’s wholly-owned retail arm Stratus likely to be the ‘executive
provisioner’ of the service to BSNL. A satphone enables a subscriber to
communicate from any point, irrespective of location, through a hand-held
terminal. The proposed gateway will enable global satellite mobile service
under the GMPCS licence. An estimated 1,532 authorised satellite phone
connections are operating within country, a majority of them being used by
security forces. Tata Communications had also issued 4,143 permits to the
maritime community for use of such phones on board ships and ocean-going
vessels. After the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, satellite phones were banned
for personal use in India.
“While BSNL has estimated that Rs 52 crore
will be required towards the cost of the gateway, the DoT has given ‘in
principle’ approval to provide support of $8 million to BSNL for establishment
of the GMPCS gateway in India,” an official said. In October last year,
US-based satellite services company Iridium had also written to the Telecom
Ministry, keen to be part of the BSNL satellite gateway project. Iridium had
earlier formed a consortium with Indian financial institutions that included
State Bank of India and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services. This
venture, however, failed to take off. INMARSAT’s present constellations of
satellites that provide global coverage — the I-3 satellites — were launched in
1996. In view of these being fairly old satellites, INMARSAT announced the
retirement of some services from these satellites starting September 2014. It
has, meanwhile, launched the next-generation satellite services.