Broadband India Forum(BIF), a technology neutral lobby of several tech companies serving satelite and telecom sector that promotes broadband, said the telecom department (DoT) and the regulator need to work together with the Department of Space (DoS) for commercial satellite communications to provide high speed broadband connectivity in remote and rural parts of the country.
T V Ramachandran, president of the Broadband India Forum, informed ET that Trai and DoT’s role needs to be optimized for benefiting commercial communications. They need to work in close collaboration with the DoS.
India already has a satcom policy since 1997, and the Open Sky Policy since 2000. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) earlier recommended opening up of Indian satellite market for private players but could not find favour with Department of Space.
Trai chairman RS Sharma had earlier said that there was a need to simplify the process and reduce procedural delays in securing satellite bandwidth through a single window approach.
Ramachandran also urged the authorities to immediately allow the players in India to tap international broadband capacity, which is readily available.
Ramachandran added that authorities should free up the market and allow open competition between international and domestic satellite operators. The move will provide a strong boost to the country’s private sector, resulting in new FDI which will help develop a complete ecosystem in India.
India doesn’t have enough commercial capacity. All satellites are of ISRO’s which has got 120 satellites, while world number of satellite is 1400, out of which 50 percent are communication. India has 25 percent share of that and without commercial communications.
The forum also urged for the upgradation of the satellite technology being used in India. Ramachandran said that technology should be modernised to offer HTS configuration using Ka band, which may reduce the cost per by a factor of 7 along with multiple fold increase in capacity.
By Baishakhi Dutta
