The INSAT series has catered to India’s needs of broadcasting and communication. At present India has got a capacity of 200 transponders, which act as channels for video and audio data transmission. The ISRO has a very ambitious plan of increasing this capacity to 500 over the next five years. With this objective in mind, it will be working on the launch of the remaining satellites from the INSAT-4 series by 2010-11.

Incidentally, the satellite transponder market is a big global business today, since transponders are found to be in short supply. Apart from broadcasting, these transponders are used for trunking and networking applications. In India, the boom in the television sector has increased the demand for DTH broadcast services. The failure of INSAT-4C has limited the domestic broadcast capacity. Recently, the space agency borrowed the Ku-band for the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Blue Magic on Malaysia’s new satellite, Measat-3. Luckily, transponders are available on lease and Panamsat, Lockheed Martin’s LMI ABS and Singapore’s ST1 can be used with transmission services over the Indian region.

However, dependence on international players alone would not be a lasting solution because such facilities could be withdrawn by the vendor at any time of its choosing, and geopolitics could also come into play. The current domestic DTH scene in India is crowded. INSAT-4A and 4B caters for DD Direct, Zee’s Dish TV, Tata Sky and Sun Direct. There are reports that the Sunil Mittal-promoted DTH service, Bharti Telemedia, could be accommodated on INSAT-4CR.

... contd.