New Delhi, May 4: The long-awaited KU-band will be made available to VSAToperators in a couple of months. This was announced by PS Saran, secretary,Department of Telecom Services (DTS), while delivering the keynote addressat a two-day conference on VSAT and Internet India 2000, being held in NewDelhi. According to him, with the successful launch of INSAT-3B, it will bepossible to provide this band. He also pointed out that in case INSAT-3B wasnot able to fulfill the demand of the entire industry, the Government plansto hire KU-band from foreign satellites and make it available to the Indiancompanies.This should solve the problems of the VSAT industry, which has been facing atough time for the last couple of years, he added. However, according tohim, while this will give a wider choice to the companies to move on to theKU-band there will be some problem because KU-band will be more expensivethan the existing C-band. Also the issue of whether the licence fee for theKU-band should be higher than or equal to that of the C band, needs to besorted out, added Saran.
Saran also said that "Internet Exchanges will see the light of the daypretty soon." According to him, major ISPs can come together and talk toeach other without needing to route the link through the US. DTS is alreadytalking to various ISPs like VSNL, Satyam, and MTNL to set up the exchangeswhich should be up and running in nine months, he added.Saran, also pointedout the Internet subscriber base which has already crossed the one millionmark in April, should be further beefed up with the availability of theKU-band "Hopefully we will exceed the projection of 7.5 million subscribersby the year 2003", he added.He also said that with the National LongDistance (NLD) opening up, VSAT companies can also become infrastructureproviders and can give bandwidth to others who need it.
Speaking at the same conference, Sanjeev Nikore, president, VSAT ServiceProviders Association (VSPA) said, that VSAT has emerged as a very strongalternative to fibre: "VSATs have been silently bringing in amini-revolution by providing reliable connectivity to the wide spread andremotely located communication hungry establishments.''
The launch of INSAT-3B and introduction of KU-band will bring about anIT-cum-telecommunications revolutions in India and make the role of VSATsmore important, he added. Speaking about the future of C-band after KU-bandis allowed, S Sukumar, SATCOM manager, ISRO, dispelled fears that extendedC-band will disappear. "Both of them will co-exist and C-band will continueto be supported by ISRO, because of logical and technical reasons. For one,the C-band is more suited to the tropical Indian environment than theKU-band. Besides, the KU-band pushes up the uptime," he added.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.