Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has sought the government’s approval to purchase satellite bandwidth directly from foreign players on the grounds that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was unable to provide it with additional capacity on the transponders of its choice.

In a letter to the Department of Telecommunications, BSNL has stated that any delay in availability of satellite bandwidth could have an adverse impact on communication links in far flung areas, particularly in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. BSNL was earlier operating on INSAT-3E satellite but this satellite was de-commissioned on April 3, 2014. Originally, BSNL had 322 MHz capacity on this satellite but ISRO is now offering it only 201 MHz of capacity. However, BSNL has requested ISRO to allow it access to three C-band transponders. Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of ISRO has informed the state-un operator regarding the availability of C-band capacity few of the foreign satellites, but the price range for leasing bandwidth is five times higher than that of INSAT.

Further, BSNL has stated that it wants to hire capacity from MESAT or Thaicom as they were willing to negotiate at $1.15 million per transponder per annum, which is only marginally higher than what BSNL was paying earlier ($1 million). However, these two satellite companies do not feature in the list of potential satellite providers drawn by Antrix Corporation.

BSNL has requested DoT to consider pushing ISRO to allot three additional transponders in C-band immediately either on INSAT or on foreign satellite having comparable price range. Alternatively, BSNL may be permitted to hire transponders directly from foreign satellite operators.

Meanwhile, the Department of Space (DoS), has informed DoT that it had offered BSNL a choice of capacity on five foreign satellites, which has been turned down by the operator. DoS claimed that it had also offered 54 MHz capacity on ISRO’s GSAT-10 satellite, which was also not acceptable to BSNL. In the backdrop of these developments, DoS has stated that it would be prudent that BSNL manages optimally their networks utilising the available and offered capacity with immediate effect.