Dot Panel To Review Norms For V-Sat Providers

The Department of telecommunications (DoT) will set up a committee to examine transponder availability and other problems of V-SAT service providers.

The panel will submit a preliminary report by October, and may recommend policy changes.

V-SAT Service Providers' Association (VESPA) have expressed opposition to paying the licence fee and the transponder charges for the period when satellite space was not available.

There was no transponder available for the last six months.

The government had allotted the extended C-band in the Intelsat series of satellites for V-SAT services. However, that was soon full and no further satellite launches are expected before March 1999.

The V-SAT service providers cannot cater to additional subscribers nor increase in traffic.

VESPA demanded that either the service providers be allowed to work on the KU-band or be allowed to hire transponders on foreign satellites.

Both would provide long-term solutions, and currently not allowed by the government.

V-SAT providers have to pay transponder charges of Rs 92 lakh per annum for 9 MHz capacity apart from their licence fee.

Each 9 MHz transponder gives the players 3000 KBPS usable bandwidth, and additional capacities are allotted in quanta of 9 Mhz.

The license fee for the VSAT providers in the first year is Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore in the second year.