Grim Battle Ahead At Geneva Meet

Orbit slots for communication satellites over Asia-Pacific are grossly overcrowded jeopardising Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro)'s plans for the Insat-3 series launch.

Isro will not have any orbit slots left for its Insat-3 satellites scheduled for launch from 1998-99 onwards. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has allocated nearly all the available geostationary orbit slots in the Asia-Pacific and it is flooded with applications seven times the last few available slots. Isro's application for two slots has been pending for the past year.

To acquire new slots, Isro will have to fight tooth and nail at next month's World telecommunications policy forum in Geneva.

 

The conference is being organised by the UN's International Telecom Union (ITU), which allocates orbit slots, to address the issue of overcrowding of communication satellites. The October 21-23 conference is expected to hammer out new standards of satellite location and frequency allocation.

Isro is already co-locating two of its satellites, the Insat-2B and 2C, at 93.5 degrees East longitude. This means the satellites are spaced merely a couple of hundred kms apart, so that their orientation from the earth appears the same. Its two other orbit slots, 83 degree east and 74 degree east are occupied by Insat-1D and 2A respectively.

At best, two other satellites, the forthcoming 2D and 2E can be co-located in the two orbit slots which have one satellite each. This means there will be no orbit slots left for the third generation Insat-3. Unless two satellites are decommissioned by then, we are in a fix, an Isro source said.

The Geneva conference is significant for Isro as it is among the space agencies from third world countries which find themselves shortchanged on the issue of orbit allocations. Aggre- ssive satellite providers such as Intelsat and Panamsat have cornered many slots by filing five to seven years in advance.

Intelsat, for example, has five slots booked over Asia-Pacific. It is buying an all Ku-band transponder satellite to offer direct-to-home multimedia services in Asia.

India and China are its prime markets as the satellite will have fixed beams over both these countries and steerable beams for others.

Intelsat hopes to rake in over $ 1 billion from an investment of $ 300 million in five years.

If the situation in satellite orbit allocation is chaotic, regarding transponder frequency allocation, it is anarchic, Seon Jong Chung, president of the Asia-Pacific Satellite Communication Council has been quoted as saying in Space News, a journal of the international space products trade.

The demand for C-band satellite frequencies (for TV) is the highest in Asia where it outweighs supply by over 7 times. In KU-Band (for direct-TV, data, multimedia), there are four times more systems going through the lab- orious frequency coordination and notification review as there are frequencies.

The ITU's problem is compounded by the lack of an international law on satellite launch. Anybody can place a satellite geostationary to any position on earth. There is no respect for national sovereignty. The only condition is that it should not clash with the orbit of another satellite or the frequency of its transponders.

The ITU has had cases of slot applicants not launching any satellites for years and then selling the orbits for a huge profit. This is because the ITU accepts proposals from any satellite provider, public or private.

Rogue providers can make millions by merely filing an application and sitting on it, very much like real estate sharks.

The Geneva conference will debate among other things an international law that would guarantee sufficient orbit slots according to a country's needs.

India will lobby for increased slots for satellites with payloads for educational, scientific and community development rather than entertainment or business payloads.

A world opinion is building against rogue applications and Geneva will discuss a vastly enhanced application fees, a definite calendar for satellite launch and commissioning and a right to cancel the orbit slot if the deadlines are not met.