New Delhi : European New Skies Satellites on Wednesday launched its Indian operations by signing up $6 million worth business with various local Internet Service Providers (ISP) and announced $250 million investment in a high power multi-media satellite to be located over Indian subcontinent.The Indian office will be the liaison base for the entire New Skies initiative in the Indian sub-continent region, covering all Saarc countries, Mr Daniel Glodburg, chief operating officer, told a news conference here on Wednesday.He said that to provide the people of the region access to a single resource for world-wide communication requirements, New Skies Satellites would be investing $250 million in a new high power multi-media satellite, NSS-6. The satellite, first to carry transponders in the Ka band, would facilitate high data-rate transmission from antennas as small as 90 cm, directly from remote premises, Mr Goldberg said.
At present, the company is providing services in India through Ku band and C-band beams on its NSS-703 satellite, with the Ku-band beams providing end-to-end Internet services for Indian ISPs. These beams cover India with Internet connectivity to Europe with a capacity of up to 200 Megabits.The C-band spot beam over India has been deployed to cover large number of small users and is already 60 per cent committed. New Skies Satellites has reached agreement with at least six ISPs in the Indian region for more than 100 Mbps of capacity worth more than $6 million, said Mr Srini Prasanna, vice president of New Skies for India, Middle East and African regions.
He said that a significant portion of the company's sales is expected from Indian region with at least 25 per cent of the value-added Internet service businesses are expected to originate from India. The decision to open an office in India is keeping in mind the growing demand for satellite communications in the country, he added.
NSS-6 satellite, which is slated for launch in the last quarter of 2002, would be designed to have a number of unique features optimised for Internet and broadband multimedia traffic. ISPs and enterprise customers will be able to offer fully interactive access to high speed Internet and other multimedia communications within or across service regions throughout India.
New Skies is a global satellite communications company with five satellite in geosynchronous orbit (GSO) and ground facilities around the world. It has new two satellites under construction. Spun-off from INTELSAT, the Hague-based New Skies is one of the only three fixed satellite services companies with truly global satellite coverage. It offers video, voice and data communication services.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.