The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has involved the scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to help in the efficient use of satellite technologies to facilitate improvement the in penetration of voice and broadband services in the country. DoT has had talks with the ISRO to discuss the changes required for facilitating satellite based communications in the remote areas.
The satellite communications has been a challenge for the telecom operations as the capacity of the ISRO transponders in not enough, and the VSAT and direct-to-home (DTH) operators depend on foreign transponders. Also, the capacity provided through the Antrix Corporation, provided by the Department of Space (DoS), is expensive as compared to the communications media. At present, ISRO and Antrix provide 43 per cent of the commercial demand for satellite capacity in India on its own satellites, while the majority is being provided by foreign satellite operators.
