Fipb To Consider Globalstar Investment Plan Next Week
The application of Globalstar, the satellite-based digital telecom services provider, to invest up to $50 million in its Indian operations, is likely to be considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) next week.
The US-based consortium, last week, launched the first four of its 56 satellite systems aboard -- a Delta booster from the Cape Canaveral launchpad in Florida. The satellites will provide voice, video and data through hand-held terminals in the digital band. The service will be available all over the world in the next two years.
Globalstars application entails setting up of a satellite access node in India, besides the infrastructure to market its services in the subcontinent.
The government has already allowed two of Globalstar's rivals -- Iridium and ICO Global Communication -- to set shop in India and offer multimedia services with low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites.
Globalstar's application had been kept pending due to objections from the Ministry of Defence on frequency allocations.
Globalstar users will be able to exchange real-time information using hand-held telephones, no bigger than conventional cellular handsets. Calls will be relayed through the Globalstar satellite constellation to a ground station and then through local terrestrial wirelines and wireless systems to their end destinations.
Globalstar satellites are equipped with orbit control systems, propulsion systems and solar arrays manufactured by Daimler Benz Aerospace of Germany. These is claimed to be the latest for LEO satellites to gives them a seven year service as compared to the three-to-five year service by conventional LEOs.
The 56 satellites are to be placed into eight orbital planes of six satellites each with a 1,400 kms circular orbit inclined at 52 degrees.
A total of 15 international consortiums are in the race to bag a part of the future multi-billion dollar world market for satellite hand-held communications including phone, data, fax and multimedia. These include the Zee TV-led consortium ASCOM, the US-based Odyssey, and the Bill Gates-promoted Teledesic.
Iridium is ahead of the pack having already placed 49 satellites of its 66 spacecraft constellation. Its services are due to take off within the next six months.
An Indian consortium led by VSNL has a 2 per cent stake in the $3 billion Iridium project. VSNL has a 7 per cent share in ICO amounting to $107 million which is expected to go up to $150 million after a rights issue.
When all the networks are up and ready, the low and middle earth orbits will have as many as 800 satellites jostling for space. Teledesic will have the lion's share with some 500 satellites.