Satellite communication or satcom can act as a frontline service in some regions where fibre-cable connectivity may not be feasible, and in disaster situations to keep essential services including banking up and running, an official of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai)  has said.

“Satcom can act as a frontline service during natural calamity situations as there are many disaster-prone areas in the country. It can also work as an excellent backup where there is no scope for fibre cable deployment,” TRAI secretary V Raghunandan, told ETTelecom.

“It can also be a tremendous support in rural and remote areas especially in northeast and other hilly areas, and also serves as a backup in islands,” the official said.

Last month, the sector regulator had expressed views on satcom, and suggested that the telecom department (DoT) should bring in a comprehensive, simplified, integrated, end-to-end coordinated, single window online common portal for agencies involved in grant of various approvals or permissions.

Satellite communications, according to Raghunandan, may act as a support to business continuity and maintaining seamless banking services particularly ATM operations during natural calamities.
Following the heightened activity in the satellite space nationally, the watchdog also recommended that the service licensees to obtain bandwidth from foreign satellites across the permitted frequency bands to offer communication services.

Meanwhile, Indian Government officials have said a new spacecom policy could be announced soon with an aim to boost the country’s broadband networks via low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems and also encourage public-private participation so private sector satellite players could contribute to India’s space developments.

“The Department of Space (DoS) will notify the new Spacecom policy very shortly as it has concluded all activities relating to its formulation, and only administrative approval is pending,” R Shakhya, DDG (satellite) in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), had said at a satcoms webinar mid-August.