The government has fixed a one-time entry fee of Rs 1 crore and an annual revenue sharing of 10 per cent of the gross revenue for providing global mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS).

The applicant would also be required to submit a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore valid at least for two years, prior to the signing of the licence agreement.

The applicant has to be an Indian company registered under the Indian Companies Act. Total foreign equity in the company shall not exceed 49 per cent during the entire licence period.

The applicant company or its promoters are required to have prior experience in telecom sector.

The licences shall be issued for a period of 20 years, and can be extended by 10 years.

GMPCS services essentially enable a subscriber to communicate from any part of the world with a hand held terminal through satellites. These systems are designed to support a variety of telecom services like voice, data, fax and messaging.

GMPCS also enables economical use of radio frequency spectrum. It may be recalled that the department of telecom has already given letters of intent (LoI) to ASC Enterprises and Shyam Aces (India) for providing GMPCS services in India.

The mobile satellite networks can operate with satellite either in low or medium earth orbits or geo-stationary orbit.

For security reasons, GMPCS operators are also required to provide monitoring facilities and security features as fixed by security agencies.

As per the guidelines, network connectivity and interconnection between various networks would be mutually negotiated and finalised between service providers.