It said VSNL had started to provide uplinking facilities for several Indian TV channels -- Tamil channel Sun TV, Malayalam channel Surya TV, Kannada channel Udaya TV, Telugu channel Benada TV and Gemini TV. Uplinking for Asianet and other channels was expected to begin shortly, the release said.It said that the uplinking services were provided from VSNL's earth stations at Chennai through the Intelsat satellite system. A number of channels were likely to avail themselves of the VSNL uplinking facilities, it said.

VSNL has leased sufficient capacity to uplink 18 channels simultaneously, either from the company's gateways or directly from the customer's premises. The company is adding 13 more antennae to its international communications network.

VSNL's acting chairman & managing director, Amitabh Kumarsaid, "Uplinking from India has helped create Intelsat satellites in the Indian Ocean as Hot Birds." Satellites which are used by a number of TV broadcasters are called Hot Birds.

This is a cost-effective option because a number of TV channels are available on the same satellite and cable TV operators usually orient their dishes towards these Hot Birds. The launch of Insat 2B, scheduled for January 1999 (APR-I satellite), will create another Hot Bird for TV broadcasting. The release said that Videsh Sanchar Nigam had already booked seven transponders for this satellite and is preparing for the ground segment operations, which is to start early next year.

The release said that VSNL had received firm requests for uplinking from several broadcasters belonging to 80 per cent Indian-owned TV channels.