In a bid to enhance liberalisation in the sector, the government will soon introduce an "Open Sky" policy for VSAT operators to allow them to directly negotiate and hire satellite bandwidth from foreign and domestic players, including the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The government is also likely to allow VSAT operators in the KA band, in addition to waiving service tax for 10 years for rural connections, said officials of the department of telecommunications.
The changes are likely to be introduced in the new telecom policy, which is expected to be in place by early 2006. Under the present policy, VSAT operators cannot hire transponder space on foreign satellites directly, but must do so via the department of space, which hires transponder space from abroad and sells it to them.
"An Open Sky policy will make the service more affordable to the end user as there are about 15 international satellite operators with capacity overlooking India," said a senior executive with a leading operator.
However, this means that VSAT operators will be subject to security and monitoring restrictions applicable to Internet Service Providers. Additionally, the first right of refusal would be given to ISRO in case price negotiations with the organisation were to fail, DoT sources said.
At present, most VSAT operations are done on the KU band frequency. Considering that technology is fast moving towards exploiting the KA Band, which would reduce the cost of hardware and services, the new telecom policy is likely to permit the switchover, the sources said.
The government is also set to revamp the current licensing procedures for satellite networks. "A single GMPCS policy will be formed on all satellite mobile services. Domestic satellite policy will also be made available on a 'pay per use' basis. Connectivity up to 2 Mbps will be permitted using VSAT," said the draft of the Telecom Policy, 2005.
Various clearances from the wireless and planning cell of the DoT would be automatic, the DoT officials said. "There is over 3Bbps of idle transponder space with foreign satellite operators. An open sky will allow us to use this bandwidth by just paying the user charges. This will have a significant impact on tariffs," said a spokesperson for another leading VSAT operator.
New regime
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VSAT operators to be included in the KA band
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KA Band to reduce the cost of hardware and services
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Operators to get 10 years service tax relief for rural connections
- Operators to be subject to security and monitoring restrictions applicable to Internet Service Providers
