Satellites zindabad, say experts at Convergence 03

Telecom experts asserted the advantages of satellites over fiber system in providing reliable and low cost broadband services, especially in continent sized countries like India, in the Space 2003 conference on the second day of Convergence India 03, currently being held in the city. 

Speakers included executives from Telnor, Intelsat, Antrix Corporation, 
iDirect Inc., and Loral Skynet among others.

"Satellites will not become obsolete" the Norwegian communication major Telenor executive Shahrokh Khanzadeh-Amiri claimed. "Satellite is better for broadband service. Some 60 percent of international connectivity is on satellite", he said. "It is a mature technology, more reliable than fiber, and multi-point delivery at low cost is possible," he added. "Many customers are not happy with the fiber they have," he said. 

A major use of satellite-based broadband in India would be for education and healthcare, Satya Murthy of the Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of the Indian Space Research Corporation said. "Already the INSAT system was helping connect patients in far away places to specialists in metro areas. Over 10,000 people have thus received diagnosis over satellite linkages. The government is planning to extend this to more areas with the transponder capacity that ISRO would set up with very powerful satellites like INSAT-4 series and the Edusat expected to be orbited starting next year," he said. Edusat with five beams in Ku-band with footprints to cover the five regions of the country and a national beam each in Ku band and extended C-band would connect schools, colleges and other educational institutions. "It will help leap frog to frontiers of technology for the education system" he summed up.

Providing broadband connectivity to corporate clients in India through VSATs, the US company iDirect Inc. was finding a good response, said Sasmith Reddi, Director, Systems Engineering. He strongly recommended satellite based broadband systems with fiber only as a complement. He also claimed that VSATs connected through satellites offered the most affordable, highly reliable, secure and multiple services medium.

Ravi Subbarayan, Head, (Broadband Services) Intelsat said that to make broadband convergence effective, technology must work with resource economics. "Broadband should be brought from the hype to business. Delivered right it is the ramp to revenue" Subbarayan asserted. Broadband linked to public Internet gave the edge to business for profitability. It was also key to bridge the digital divide, he claimed. It made 'all on IP' strategy market a reality. He foresaw India moving to a satellite enabled e-economy showing a dramatic growth in satellite based IP use by 2007 but regulatory practices needed improvement.

Cyber News Service